Cover Picture and Issue Information

Red harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex barbatus) at their nest entrance. Photo by Katie Dektar. This month’s cover image is provided by the authors of the article ‘Cuticular hydrocarbons and collective response to water stress in a desert ant’ (https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.70224), which features in this issue. They considered how variation among desert ant colonies in the cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) that prevent water loss is associated with variation among colonies in the collective behaviour that manages water stress. They found that behavioural differences among colonies are associated with the capacity of their foragers’ CHCs to prevent water loss, reporting variation among conspecific colonies in CHC profile linked to colony differences in collective behaviour.