Ant scientists typically list a battery of technical reasons for why they chose to work on formicids- ecological dominance, social behavior, and so on- but ant science holds another advantage. Myrmecology is a lovely community of people, too. Here’s a shot from the Uganda Ant Course last month.

(Pssst… Christian has been living in France for a couple of decades now, but he holds a Belgian passport. Just saying, you know, it might be like calling a Canadian an American (or is it more offensive the other way around?).)
That’s a great couple of myrmecologists!!
Leave it to a cladist to try to properly sort out the ancestral state of everything I post here…
This picture says it all. It’s the beer-drinking among myrmecologists. Try having the Ant Course in a dry state. (Good to see Christian and Corrie!)
Dave makes a very good point!
But we are lovely, even when we’re not drinking.
Thanks, Alex. (from one of the lovely people that couldn’t make it this year)
Thanks for posting this photo, Alex! Great times!
I look forward to seeing more from Ant Course in Uganda.
Cool tattoos Corrie.