Sylvia Cremer

Sylvia Cremer

Phone: +43 (0)2243 9000 3401
Email: sylvia.cremer(at)ista.ac.at

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My main research interest lies in understanding the evolution of cooperative disease defences in insect societies. In contrast to solitary organisms, individuals in social groups do not have to rely solely on their own behavioural and physiological immune systems. By performing collective hygienic measures they help each other and thereby greatly decrease disease susceptibility of group members.

In my team, we study the effects of pathogens on social interaction networks in ant societies and determine how interaction with sick nestmates affects both the hygiene behaviours and the physiological immune system of individual ant workers. We study host-pathogen systems with ants and their fungal, bacterial and viral pathogens. We consider ant societies and their pathogens an ideal model system to understand epidemiology in societies.

My research interests evolved from the conflicts expressed within ant colonies that I studied during my PhD (1998-2002, University of Regensburg) to the unique super-cooperative social structure in invasive ants in my postdoc (2002-2006, University of Copenhagen). Since my time as a Junior Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Berlin (2006) and my Habilitation (2006-10, University of Regensburg), my research focus lies on how social insects cooperatively protect their colony from disease, that is, their social immunity.

  • Schrempf A, Cremer S,  Heinze J (2011)
    Social influence on age and reproduction: reduced lifespan and fecundity in multi‐queen ant colonies.
    Journal of Evolutionary Biology, Volume 24, Issue 7, Pages 1455–1461
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02278.x
  • Cremer S, Schrempf A, Heinze J (2011)
    Competition and Opportunity Shape the Reproductive Tactics of Males in the Ant Cardiocondyla obscurior.
    PLoS ONE 6(3): e17323.
    https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017323
  • Suefuji M, Cremer S, Oettler J and Heinze J (2008)
    Queen number influences the timing of the sexual production in colonies of Cardiocondyla ants.
    Biology Letters 4: 670–673
    http://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2008.0355
  • Cremer S, Ugelvig LV, Drijfhout FP, Schlick-Steiner BC, Steiner FM, Seifert B, et al. (2008)
    The Evolution of Invasiveness in Garden Ants. PLoS ONE 3(12): e3838. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0003838
  • Ugelvig LV, Drijfhout FP, Kronauer DJ, Boomsma JJ, Pedersen JS, Cremer S (2008) The introduction history of invasive garden ants in Europe: Integrating genetic, chemical and behavioural approaches.
    BMC Biology 6, 11
    https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7007-6-11
  • Cremer S, D’Ettorre P, Drijfhout FP, et al. (2008)
    Imperfect chemical female mimicry in males of the ant Cardiocondyla obscurior
    Naturwissenschaften 95, 1101–1105
    https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-008-0430-8
  • Moder K, Schlick-Steiner BC, Steiner FM, Cremer S, Christian E, Seifert B (2006)
    Optimal species distinction by discriminant analysis: comparing established methods of character selection with a combination procedure using ant morphometrics as a case study.
    Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research, 45 , pp. 82-87
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0469.2006.00372.x
  • Heinze J, Cremer S, Eckl N, Schrempf A (2006)
    Stealthy invaders: the biology of Cardiocondyla tramp ants.
    Insectes sociaux 53, 1-7
    https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-005-0847-4
  • Ustinova J, Achmann R, Cremer S et al. (2006)
    Long Repeats in a Huge Genome: Microsatellite Loci in the Grasshopper Chorthippus biguttulus.
    J Mol Evol 62, 158–167
    https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-005-0022-6
  • Cremer S, Ugelvig LV, Lommen STE, Petersen KS, Pedersen JS (2006)
    Attack of the invasive garden ant: aggression behaviour of Lasius neglectus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) against native Lasius species in Spain.
    Myrmecological News 9, 13 – 19
  • de Menten L, Cremer S, Heinze J, Aron S (2005)
    Primary sex ratio adjustment by ant queens in response to local mate competition.
    Animal Behaviour 69, 5, p 1031-1035
  • Schrempf A, Heinze J, Cremer S (2005)
    Sexual cooperation: mating increases longevity in ant queens.
    Current Biology 15, 267-270
  • Heinze J, Böttcher A, Cremer S (2004)
    Production of winged and wingless males in the ant, Cardiocondyla minutior
    Insectes Sociaux 51 (3), 275-278
  • Cremer S & Heinze J (2003)
    Stress grows wings: environmental induction of winged dispersal males in Cardiocondyla ants.
    Current Biology 13, 219-223
  • Anderson C, Cremer S, Heinze J (2003)
    Live and let die: why fighter males of the ant Cardiocondyla kill each other but tolerate their winged rivals.
    Behavioral Ecology 14 (1), 54-62
  • Cremer S, Sledge MF, Heinze J (2002)
    Male ants disguised by the queen’s bouquet.
    Nature 419, 897
  • Cremer S, Lautenschläger B, Heinze J (2002)
    A transitional stage between the ergatoid and the winged male morph in Cardiocondyla obscurior.
    Insectes Sociaux 49, 221-228
  • Cremer S & Heinze J (2002)
    Adaptive production of fighter males: ant queens adjust the sex ratio under local mate competition.
    Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 269, 417-422
  • Turillazzi S, Sledge MF, Cremer S, Heinze J (2002)
    A method for analysing small-sized specimens in GC-MS.
    Journal of Insect Social Life 4, 169-175
  • Cremer S & Greenfield MD (1998)
    Partitioning the components of sexual selection: attractiveness and agonistic behaviour in male wax moths, Achroia grisella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae).
    Ethology 104, 1-9