Thermal tolerance is an important ability for organisms to cope with climate change. European mound-building Formica wood ants are an excellent study system for testing thermal tolerance ability and the effects of hybridization (Martin-Roy et al., 2021). My project will investigate whether two related species of wood ant, F. aquilonia and F. polyctena, that live at different elevations in the Bavarian alps have evolved differences in thermal tolerance, and how it may be influenced by hybridization. Because hybridisation can generate genetic variation, understanding how gene flow between species adapted to different thermal habitats will help us understand how populations can respond to a changing world. Study methods will include fieldwork in the Alps, genomic data analysis and thermal tolerance experiments.