Members of the Zoological Society of Japan

I am Yusuke Notomi from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo.
I am writing to announce that we will hold the Komaba Ecology Class on August 27, 2025.
https://sites.google.com/site/komabaecoevo/

This time, Dr. Rio Mizuno from OIST will give a lecture on the natural history of trap-jaw ants of the genus Anochetus and the evolutionary process of army ants as seen from it. Dr. Mizuno has collected ants in the tropical regions of Southeast Asia and conducted extensive research on their taxonomy, ecology, behavior, and evolution. Please enjoy the frontier of passionate, breathtaking, and comprehensive comparative research.
This will be held as a hybrid open seminar. Please feel free to join us.

Registration Deadline: August 26, 2025 (Day before the event)
https://forms.gle/z7RwFtADyAwcteeR8
*The streaming URL will be sent on the morning of the event.
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Wednesday, August 27, 2025, University of Tokyo Komaba I Campus, 14:30–15:30
The 54th Komaba Ecology Classroom - Hybrid Event (In-person & Online)

Dr. Rio Mizuno (OIST)
The evolution of high social complexity seen from the natural history of bulldog ants closely related to army ants
https://sites.google.com/site/komabaecoevo/

Army ants of the subfamily Dorylinae exhibit extremely high social complexity—such as exceptionally massive colony sizes, group foraging by numerous workers, and marked morphological specialization in queens—as well as a unique life history not found in other ants, such as specialized predation on other ants. Meanwhile, closely related species groups within the same subfamily, collectively known as *Cerapachys* and its allies, exhibit smaller colony sizes and a life history completely different from army ants, but the details have remained poorly studied. The presenters have conducted research centered on the tropical regions of Southeast Asia, aiming to examine the evolutionary process of army ants through comparative studies of the life histories of these ants. In the process, they discovered species showing different evolutionary intermediate stages of army-ant-like life history traits, such as the expansion of colony size, morphological specialization of queens, and the acquisition of small-scale yet characteristic collective behaviors, revealing a gradation in the evolution of army ants within this subfamily. This presentation will provide an overview of current findings and discuss the evolution of army ants in this subfamily.

Organizers: Yusuke Notomi (The University of Tokyo, D3) Tatsumi Kudo (The University of Tokyo, D3) Haruka Asanabe (The University of Tokyo, D1)

Inquiry: Yusuke Notomi
Department of General Systems Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Room 314, Building 3, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902
Email: notomiant@g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp
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