Boomsma, Jacobus J.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Universitetsparken 15 2100 Copenhagen Denmark
ANT TAXONOMY
I am primarily interested in the population biology of conflict and cooperation, i.e. in the evolutionary ecology (a.o. sex allocation and mating systems) and population genetics of insect societies including their social parasites and in the co-evolutionary study of mutualisms. Important model systems are the fungus-growing ants and termites and their symbionts, Maculinea butterflies and their Myrmica host ants, and Lasius and Formica ants. Additional projects have focused on the population- and breeding structure of vertebrate species in Denmark and insects in Greenland. Most studies involve some combination of field studies, experiments and analysis of DNA markers. My group is increasingly involved in biodiversity and conservation studies and is supported by the Danish Natural Science Research Council (Centre of Social Evolution and Symbiosis), an EU Research-training network (INSECTS) that I coordinate, and various other EU network grants and individual Marie Curie fellowships.
PUBLICATIONS
- Boomsma, J. J. 1988. Empirical analysis of sex allocation in ants: from descriptive surveys to population genetics. Pp. 42-51 in: Jong, G. de (ed.) 1988. Population genetics and evolution. Berlin: Springer Verlag, xi + 282 pp.
- Boomsma, J. J. 1989. Sex-investment ratios in ants: has female bias been systematically overestimated? American Naturalist 133:517-532.
- Boomsma, J. J.; Grafen, A. 1990. Intraspecific variation in ant sex ratios and the Trivers-Hare hypothesis. Evolution 44:1026-1034.
- Boomsma, J. J.; Grafen, A. 1991. Colony-level sex ratio selection in the eusocial Hymenoptera. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 4:383-407.
- Boomsma, J. J.; Keller, L.; Nielsen, M. G. 1995. A comparative analysis of sex ratio investment parameters in ants. Functional Ecology 9:743-753.
- Boomsma, J. J.; Mabelis, A. A.; Verbeek, M. G. M.; Los, E. C. 1987. Insular biogeography and distribution ecology of ants on the Frisian islands. Journal of Biogeography 14:21-37.
- Boomsma, J. J.; Sundström, L. 1998. Patterns of paternity skew in Formica ants. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 42:85-92.
- Boomsma, J. J.; Van Loon, A. J. 1982. Structure and diversity of ant communities in successive coastal dune valleys. Journal of Animal Ecology 51:957-974.