生物多様性・複雑性研究ユニット

A long-term research goal of our lab is to build a comprehensive database and map of how ants are distributed around the world.

One of the most striking features of ant diversity is the sheer variety and ingenuity of mandibles. Mandibles are a primary way that ants interact with the world, and are used as diverse tools for many tasks and purposes.

I am on sabbatical this year at Harvard University, where I was lucky enough be named the Mary I. Bunting Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study.

One of the things I like about my PhD work is that I get to do a little bit of everything: fieldwork, molecular lab work, and bioinformatics.

If you look hard enough in the field, you are guaranteed to uncover cool stuff. Such is the case in Madagascar, where Brian Fisher and colleagues have been surveying the island intensively for 20+ years, uncovering a huge and mostly endemic ant fauna.

Ever wanted your taxonomic revision with its own custom-made iphone app?

Our new paper From species sorting to mass effects: spatial network structure mediates the shift between metacommunity archetypes published in Ecography explores the role of landscape structure in driving biodiversity.

Birds use their beaks for foraging, but also for regulating their temperature, singing and a variety of other functions.