Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
The nose knows, and this little insect appears to have quite a long one. But do you know? Ten Myrmecos Points (TM) for the first correct guess to genus and species of our mystery insect. Supporting information about identifying characters must be provided to claim points. As usual, the cumulative points winner for the month [...]
A dramatic re-enactment of the strange sex life of bed bugs: h/t Chris Murrow
If you’ve spent time looking at my photo galleries, you’ll know most of my macro images are lit with an off-camera flash. While I’d like to claim that flash is my personal style, the reality is that flash is more convenient. Flash provides the control to take a consistently well-exposed photo in any place at [...]
A few weeks ago the first Aphis nerii of the season showed up in our little prairie garden. These little orange globes multiplied to plague proportions within days. The butterfly weed was hit hard, dropping its plumes of orange flowers and withering. The bounty of aphids didn’t go unnoticed for long. Lots of insects eat [...]
Ecologists have long known that an animal’s metabolism is related to its size in a rather predictable way. Large animals process more energy than small animals, but they do so with an efficiency such that, pound for pound, they use less. A cow may weigh as much as 15,000 mice, but an ounce of cow [...]
A Google News search for “Ants”, just now : Yes, that is an order of magnitude more media coverage for a reality TV show.
It looks from here and here as though there are plans to make the new ant genomes available. Here is Science Magazine’s data policy: Data and materials availability. All data necessary to understand, assess, and extend the conclusions of the manuscript must be available to any reader of Science. After publication, all reasonable requests for [...]
The journal Science has just reported the first ant genome study. Well, the first ant genomes. A pair of them, from the Florida Carpenter Ant Camponotus floridanus and the Indian jumping ant Harpegnathos saltator, both study animals in the lab of Arizona State University’s Juergen Liebig. Abstract: The organized societies of ants include short-lived worker [...]
Is your academic conference boring, lifeless, and lacking inspiration? That’s too bad. You probably should have invited Barrett Klein. Barrett is a recently-minted Ph.D. from UT Austin who studies social insects. But that’s not the subject of this post. Rather, Barrett has developed a habit of borrowing name tags from other conference attendees and adorning [...]
What were those sonorous summer songs? In spite of being “the toughest MNM yet,” several of you picked the correct answers. Five points each go to Scot for the scissor-grinder cicada Tibicen pruinosa, and to Ted MacRae for the jumping bush cricket Orocharis saltator. An excellent resource for learning the singing insects of eastern North [...]
A personal weblog by Illinois-based biologist and photographer Alex Wild.
Myrmecos- derived from the ancient greek word for "ant"- hosts Alex's musings about these and other little creatures that share our planet.
Questions? Comments? Email alwild [at] myrmecos.net
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