Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
Check this out: Arizona State University biologist Adrian Smith drops a few army ants into an Aphaenogaster harvester ant nest and mayhem ensues. Within seconds, the harvesters mass-evacuate with their queen and all the brood they can grab. A remarkable aspect of this behavior is its predictability. Almost every colony will bail at the mere [...]
I do apologize for the lack of blogging this week- I’ve been busy with lab work. Until things free up, here’s a spider: She set up shop across our back stairs at the perfect height to snare a human. Ambitious! I took this photo for the forensics folks in case we go missing.
Who scored on last night’s mystery? Three points to Gene Hall for naming the family, 8 to Kojun who guessed the genus, species, and collection site, and one to Chris Grinter who added family-level diagnostics. Chris also takes the monthly prize- with 19 total points- for September. Email me to claim your loot, Chris!
Tonight’s challenge: identify this adorable little beetle. Points will be awarded to the first commentators to name the family (3 pts), genus (3 pts), and species (3 pts). Plus, two more points if you can tell me where I collected it. This species has a rather unusual habitat. The cumulative points winner for the month [...]
Another David Attenborough classic, from the Trials of Life:
One of my projects at the moment is coordinating beetle pages for the Tree of Life site. But I’ve been sneaking some ant work in on the side, with a trimmed-down version of my Ph.D. dissertation published this morning: Linepithema on the Tree of Life Participating in the Tree of Life isn’t hard. If you [...]
Even the most epic moments of ant warfare can seem inconspicuous from the towering height of our human eyes. The fisherman above, for instance, didn’t even flinch at the hostilities at his feet, even after I pointed out the boiling mass of angry ants. “Someone must’ve spilled something there,” he grunted as he moved on. [...]
Last night’s mysterious moth larva played right into the hands of lepidoptera expert Chris Grinter, who swept all 10 points less than 8 minutes after the post went up: Notodontidae cats tend to have this broken/jagged leaf appearance – they cut little circles out of the leaves and then sit in them to match the [...]
The African Ant-Acacia system continues to yield valuable ecological insight. PNAS published another excellent paper yesterday by Todd Palmer’s group that combines modeling with empirical data to show how short-term evaluations of mutualisms miss key dynamics: [excerpted from the abstract] The tropical tree Acacia drepanolobium associates with four symbiotic ant species whose short-term individual effects [...]
Tonight’s challenge is a straight-up identification: This caterpillar hides from predators by pretending to be a dead leaf, except for the bit that’s faking a living leaf. It was photographed last week on an oak tree here in Central Illinois. Points will be awarded to the first person to guess the: 1. Family (4 pts) [...]
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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