Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
Tonight’s marvelous mystery insect takes us to the cloud forests of western Ecuador: Who is this colorful character? Points go to the first commentator to correctly guess: The current family (3 pts) The previous family (3 pts) The genus (4 pts) The cumulative points winner for the month of February will win their choice of [...]
Meet the bullet ant. Why is it called that? Well, the searing sting of this New World tropical species apparently feels like a gunshot wound. It tops Justin Schmidt’s 4-point sting pain index: Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like fire-walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch rusty nail in your heel. Paraponera clavata is one of [...]
This past few weeks I’ve been performing the unpleasant annual ritual of combing the web looking for instances of unauthorized commercial use of my photographs. My rationale for controlling copyright infringement is two-fold. First, infringement deprives me of the revenue I need to host my websites, repair my equipment, and travel to insect-filled jungles. Second, [...]
Tropical Pachycondyla epitomize the ant as lone huntress. Even though these insects live in colonies, foragers locate and retrieve prey singly. This Pachycondyla cooki forager has caught an histerid beetle. photo details Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens Canon EOS 7D ISO 200, f/16, 1/200 sec diffused external strobe Jatun Sacha, Ecuador
I’m on my way out the door to attend the fabulous Insect Fear Film Festival, so this will be short. This year’s festival theme is Killer Wasps, featuring two truly atrocious hymenopterous thrillers, Monster from Green Hell (1958) and Swarmed(2005). To counter any lingering anti-wasp paranoia, here are shots of some rather gentle Mischocyttarus paper [...]
The famously pesty South American fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) has plagued the southern regions of the United States since the 1940s. Although they achieved legendary status as one of the most damaging insects in the United States, for half a century they never moved beyond the North and South American ranges. About 10 years ago, [...]
Well. Monday’s Mystery didn’t take long to crack. Jason C. nabs all ten points, with an extra point each to Josh King for picking the sex (female!) and James Trager for noting that this species mimics Larrea seeds as they blow across the desert sands. Incidentally, it just so happens that several of these little [...]
My apologies for the slow blogging the last couple of days. My morning blogging hour was taken up not with the usual joyous reparté on natural history but with the drudgery of emailing copyright infringement notices to various companies that never bothered to ask if using my photographs to sell their products was ok. I [...]
Tonight’s entomological mystery is a close crop from the deserts of Arizona: Ten points to the first person to guess the species. Supporting characters must be given for full credit. The cumulative points winner for the month of February will win their choice of 1) any 8×10-sized print from my photo galleries, or 2) a [...]
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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