Erik Thomas Frank- PhD
- Group Leader at University of Wuerzburg
Erik Thomas Frank
- PhD
- Group Leader at University of Wuerzburg
About
42
Publications
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Introduction
Erik Frank currently works at the Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, University of Würzburg.
Erik does research in Behaviour, Evolutionary Biology and Ecology.
Their current project is focused on the evolution of rescue behaviour and wound treatment in ants (Social Wound Care).
Current institution
Additional affiliations
February 2018 - January 2021
January 2015 - December 2017
Education
January 2015 - January 2018
October 2013 - June 2014
October 2010 - April 2013
Publications
Publications (42)
Predators of highly defensive prey likely develop cost-reducing adaptations. The ant Megaponera analis is a specialized termite predator, solely raiding termites of the subfamily Macrotermitinae (in this study, mostly colonies of Pseudocanthotermes sp.) at their foraging sites. The evolutionary arms race between termites and ants led to various def...
Collective decision making is one of the main mechanisms of organization in social insects. However, individual decision making can also play an important role, depending on the type of foraging behaviour. In the termite-hunting ant species Megaponera analis information about foraging sites is collected by only a handful of individual scouts that h...
Open wounds are a major health risk in animals, with species prone to injuries likely developing means to reduce these risks. We therefore analysed the behavioural response towards open wounds on the social and individual level in the termite group-hunting ant Megaponera analis. During termite raids, some ants get injured by termite soldiers (bitin...
Infected wounds pose a major mortality risk in animals. Injuries are common in the ant Megaponera analis, which raids pugnacious prey. Here we show that M. analis can determine when wounds are infected and treat them accordingly. By applying a variety of antimicrobial compounds and proteins secreted from the metapleural gland to infected wounds, wo...
Ants often face injuries during foraging, or interspecific competition, elevating infection risk and mortality among the wounded. To avoid this, ants engage in wound care on injured nestmates as a form of social immunity. In this study, we show that Cataglyphis nodus desert ants perform differentiated wound care behavior, depending on wound locatio...
Gut microbes can impact cognition and behavior, but whether they regulate the division of labor in animal societies is unknown. We addressed this question using honeybees since they exhibit division of labor between nurses and foragers and because their gut microbiota can be manipulated. Using automated behavioral tracking and controlling for co-ho...
Ants often face injuries during foraging, or interspecific competition, elevating infection risk and mortality among the wounded. To avoid this, ants engage in wound care on injured nestmates as a form of social immunity. In this study, we show that Cataglyphis nodus desert ants perform differentiated wound care behavior, depending on wound locatio...
Gut microbes can impact cognition and behavior, but whether they regulate division of labor in animal societies is unknown. We addressed this question using honeybees since they exhibit division of labor between nurses and foragers and because their gut microbiota can be manipulated. Using automated behavioral tracking and controlling for co-housin...
The Comoé National Park (CNP), located in the north-eastern part of the Ivory Coast, is strongly influenced by the river Comoé, which is eponymous for the park. Gallery forests along the river, forest islands, open grasslands, bush and tree savannas of various densities offer diverse habitats that harbor both forest and savannah praying mantis spec...
In social groups, infection risk is not distributed evenly across individuals. Individual behaviour is a key source of variation in infection risk, yet its effects are difficult to separate from other factors (e.g., age). Here, we combine epidemiological experiments with chemical, transcriptomic, and automated behavioural analyses in clonal ant col...
Ants communicate via an arsenal of different pheromones produced in a variety of exocrine glands. For example, ants release alarm pheromones in response to danger to alert their nestmates and to trigger behavioral alarm responses. Here we characterize the alarm pheromone and the alarm response of the clonal raider ant Ooceraea biroi, a species that...
Depending on the reproductive strategy of a species, the same environmental barrier can affect gene flow differently. In this study, we analyzed the effects of a river on the gene flow of two ant species, one with wingless queens (Megaponera analis) and one with winged queens (Paltothyreus tarsatus), both with winged males. Colonies were sampled in...
In social groups, disease risk is not distributed evenly across group members. Individual behaviour is a key source of variation in infection risk, yet its effects are difficult to separate from those of other factors. Here, we combine long-term epidemiological experiments and automated tracking in clonal raider ant colonies, where behavioural indi...
Ants communicate via an arsenal of different pheromones produced in a variety of exocrine glands. For example, ants release alarm pheromones in response to danger to alert their nestmates and to trigger behavioral alarm responses. Here we characterize the alarm pheromone and the alarm response of the clonal raider ant Ooceraea biroi , a species tha...
The gut microbiota influences animal neurodevelopment and behaviour but has not previously been documented to affect group-level properties of social organisms. Here, we use honeybees to probe the effect of the gut microbiota on host social behaviour. We found that the microbiota increased the rate and specialization of head-to-head interactions be...
Infected wounds pose a major mortality risk in animals. Injuries are common in the ant Megaponera analis which raids pugnacious prey. Here we show that M. analis can determine when wounds are infected and treat them specifically. By applying a variety of antimicrobial compounds and proteins secreted from the metapleural gland to infected wounds, wo...
The gut microbiota influences animal neurophysiology and behavior but has not previously been documented to affect emergent group-level behaviors. Here we combine gut microbiota manipulation with automated behavioral tracking of honeybee sub-colonies to show that the microbiota increases the rate and specialization of social interactions. Microbiot...
Social animals display a wide range of behavioural defences against infectious diseases, some of which increase social contacts with infectious individuals (e.g. mutual grooming), while others decrease them (e.g. social exclusion). These defences often rely on the detection of infectious individuals, but this can be achieved in several ways that ar...
Visual and olfactory communication are vital for coordinated group hunting in most animals. To hunt for prey, the group raiding termite specialist ant Megaponera analis, which lacks good vision must first confirm the presence or absence of conspecific raiders. Here we show that, M. analis uses olfactory cues for intra-specific communication and sho...
An efficient foraging strategy is one of the most important traits for the fitness of animals. The theory of optimal foraging tries to predict foraging behaviour through the overarching question: how animals should forage so as to minimize costs while maximizing profits? Social insects, having occupied nearly every natural niche through widely diff...
Trail network systems among ants have received a lot of scientific attention due to their various applications in problem solving of networks. Recent studies have shown that ants select the fastest available path when facing different velocities on different substrates, rather than the shortest distance. The progress of decision-making by these ant...
Rescue behavior focused on injured individuals has rarely been observed in animals. These observations though are from very different taxa's: birds, mammals and social insects. Here we discuss likely antecedents to rescue behaviors in ants, like social carrying and alarm pheromones. We then compare similarities and preconditions necessary for rescu...
Division of labor is one of the main reasons for the success of social insects. Worker polymorphism, age polyethism and work division in more primitive ants, such as the ponerines, remain mostly unexplored. The group hunting, termite-specialist Megaponera analis conducts raids in column formations of 200–500 ants. Since these ants specialize on a d...
Poster showing our results from 2014-2017 concerning rescue behaviour and wound treatment of injured individuals in the termite hunting ant Megaponera analis.
In this poster we show the sophisticate formation in the raiding column of Megaponera analis, with caste and age playing an important role in the positioning of the ants.
