Defying senescence – The causes of death and the costs of living of ant queens

Within the frame of the DFG research unit FOR2281 (“Sociality and the reversal of the fecundity-longevity trade-off”), the project OE549/2-2 aims to understand why Cardiocondyla obscurior ant queens exhibit no or only a very brief senescent phase, and why queens actually die. So far, we have produced exciting results, but need more time to finish other project objectives. This is mainly because the PI was ill for the large part of 2020, the critical third year of the funding period; I therefore ask for an extension of the project to bring these tasks to completion.