Benoit Guénard

Welcome to the Insect Biodiversity and Biogeography Laboratory!

     We are a group of ecologists interested in various aspects of the diversity of life. Our research seeks to answer the following questions. Where are the most species-rich regions of the world? How can some regions sustain thousands of species while others have only a few dozen? Were today’s most diverse regions as diverse 10, 50, or 100 million years ago? Do different groups of organisms follow the same diversity patterns?  What effects have human changes on species richness and composition?

     These “basic” questions are still poorly understood today, despite the fact that we live in a biodiversity crisis where species go extinct daily.

    To address these questions, we study some of the most fascinating and ecologically important organisms: ants!  In the following pages, we introduce aspects of our research on large-scale patterns of ant diversity, community ecology, biological invasion, behavioral ecology, and foraging ecology. We also present some of our interests in community outreach and macro photography.

     We are based in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Hong Kong.

     To contact us, please Email Benoit Guénard at: zeroben@gmail.com

News!

• Many exciting papers already in 2022 from various lab members on biological invasions and functional ecology, thermal ecology, decomposition and the functional roles of ants, global ant diversity, abundance and biomass, among others! Check those out.
• 09/2022. STUDENT/JOB position: Thanks to several grants secured this year, the IBBL is recruiting. Have a look here.
• Check the new papers for 2021 published by the lab. Lots of exciting studies and more to come!
• JOB position: 3-year postdoc position in insect systematics/phylogenetic diversity (January 2021)- fulfilled
• JOB positions: Two educator positions to work as ecoleader in collaboration with the Nature Discovery Park at K11 (9 months); and to work as an educator for the Hong Kong Biodiversity Museum – More information here (December 2020) – Fulfilled
• Congratulations Mark for defending your PhD thesis with bright colours! Very well done Dr. Wong.
• Check the new papers for 2020 so far published by the lab. Many more exciting studies to come soon.
• 05/2020 Four new positions available in the lab – Check the information here.
• 08/2019 A new position for a Research Assistant is available within the lab – check the information here.
• 07/2019 Four new species described from Hong Kong, including a new species of ant (Ponera tudigong) and three species of the genus Rhaphium (Diptera: Dolichopodidae), including one named after my colleague and friend Dr. Stefano Cannicci.
• 06/2019 An important article published by Brett presenting a high resolution of various environmental layers for Hong Kong and published in Earth System Science Data.
• 18/03/2019 A couple of articles published in the lab in the past week in Methods in Ecology and Evolution and Zookeys. The first led by Roger shows the importance to consider potential sampling biases while designing surveys and interpreting results using a functional traits approach. The second led by Wilfred is a review of the Strumigenys in Hong Kong with 3 new species described and 9 more newly recorded for the region. Well done all!

• The lab has a new logo thanks to the talent of Runxi.

• 25/02/2019 – Two new PhD and one Postdoctoral positions opened in the lab – Check this out.

• 14/12/2018 – New review paper led by Mark on the use and importance of functional traits in terrestrial arthropods published in Biological Reviews.

• 30/08/2018 – New article on biological invasions within insular systems published this week in PNAS. Remote islands are particularly at risk for invasions.

• 27/07/2018- New paper on the importance of tropical regions for Biodiversity, the main threats and what solutions to adopt to protect the most valuable biological regions published in Nature.

• 01/07/2018- Roger presented his research on ant community changes in Hong Kong over >20 years period at the annual meeting of ATBC in Sarawak (Borneo). Well done!

• Roger and Khan published their first paper on the dietary ecology of the Chinese Pangolin… and guess what? They eat ants, a lot of ants. PDF

• The new Hong Kong ant, Paratopula bauhinia, got some good coverage in the local medias.

• Big week for ants in the Insect Biodiversity and Biogeography laboratory with two papers describing new species of Paratopula from Hong Kong by Ying and Myrmecina from Singapore by Mark (well done folks!) and the release of a 20 minutes documentary on our work on ants in Hong Kong in the Pearl Report!

• And 2! The second publications describing a new species from Singapore by Mark was just accepted while his second article on Aenictus was released yesterday in Annales Zoologici 

• Mark’s work in Singapore along with the description of Leptanilla hypodracos highlighted in a local TV program (@ 16.30).

• Two new papers coming from the lab on this beginning of 2016. The first checklist of ants from India with a presentation state by state and a new Leptanilla species described with our own Mark Wong from Singapore. Both articles are published in Zookeys.

• Very nice paper lead by Eli Sarnat on the introduced species of Pheidole around the world published in Zookeys. Another great contribution of the GABI database.

• Our latest paper on the evolution of the biogeography of ant communities over the Cenozoic is out in the Journal of Biogeography.

• antmaps.org is now alive. Visit it to discover the distribution of all ant taxa!

• The last video on how to collect ants and other leaf litter arthropods is now online thanks to Ying. Check it out!

• Our latest publication is out this week, based on a 2-weeks survey we did in Xishuangbanna in 2013. 40 new ant records from Yunnan, 17 new from China, great pictures and one of the first direct application of GABI for discovering new ants. Worth taking a look in Zookeys (in open access)

• The end of the year 2014 came with a new important addition for the lab: a microscope imaging station. Here are some of the first pictures to be produced from a species collected this past fall. Enjoy!

• Our first Winkler extractors from Hong Kong Island. Some really cool results already thanks to Mark Wong Kah Loon and Lily Ng!

Photo by Lily Ng

• PhD Research Assistantship in ant ecology and biodiversity available. Contact me for more information.

• The Insect Biodiversity and Biogeography Laboratory is now alive at HKU! Do you want to be part of it? Don’t hesitate to contact me.

• New article on the effect of urbanization and 3 major invasive ant species on ant communities over a 40 years period! You might be surprised by the results.  Check this out

• This is with great pleasure that I announce that starting September 1st 2014, I will start my own lab on Insect Biodiversity and Biogeography at the School of Biological Sciences of the University of Hong Kong.

• Global Ant Bioinformatics (GABI) database is now alive! Check out for more info here.

• Cong Liu made a great website presenting beautiful pictures of all the 227 ant species we collected in June 2013 in the Xishuangbanna region (Yunnan, China). Check this out!