This year we had the most important meeting for ant researchers – the international conference of the IUSSI that takes place only once every four years. This time the conference was hosted by the Brazilian section of IUSSI. We met with many hundreds of social insect researchers in a very nice seaside resort close to São Paulo. Pnina and Eyal represented the lab, and presented results on the population genomic study of Solenopsis fire ants (by Pnina), the behavioral/genetic study of social information transfer in tandem running ants (by Daphna), and the evolutionary study of the Juvenile Hormone Esterases in trophallaxis fluid (by Amir in collaboration with Adria LeBoeuf). There was lots of great social insect science and lots of interactions with colleagues and friends, for both collaboration and fun!

Here are some great photos (by Pnina, of course) of some amazing Brazilian ants from that region: