Ectatomma is a large, conspicuous ant that prefers to hang out at eye level in the forest understory. As a consequence it is among the most commonly encountered tropical insects, and one of the most photographed. The world does not need more Ectatomma photos, but when I happened across this scene just up the trail from the Jatun Sacha station buildings I couldn’t help myself:
Ectatomma tuberculatum & membracid nymph, Ecuador
At the time I did not notice the water droplets in the backdrop, but in my opinion they really make this shot.
photo details:
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM macro lens on a Canon EOS 7D
ISO 200, f/16, 1/200 sec
Indirect strobe positioned for the double duty of backlighting the leaf and bouncing indirectly off white paper above the ants for foreground lighting
A personal blog by Illinois-based biologist and photographer Alex Wild.
Wow! Amazing work, Alex!
The world needs more good natural history images of Ectatomma. Looking at all those pictures of museum specimens could be a bit numbing, but pictures of them in life, especially of less photographed beauties such as E. opaciventre will continue to be welcome.
If this photo doesn’t make you want to be a myrmecologist, nothing will. Very nice, thanks.
Located yuor web blog through AOL. You know I am signing up to your feed.
And closely guarding that tree hopper they are. Great shot, and the water droplets make it even better.