Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
I am pleased to announce that BugShot, our humble insect photography event from last summer, is poised to expand into a series of courses & workshops. For starters, this means two things: The 2012 BugShot summer workshop now has a time and a place: the magical Archbold Biological Station in Florida, August 23-26. BugShot now [...]
I was browsing eBay’s amber offerings when I stumbled across this rather interesting item: It’s a ring bearing a piece of Baltic amber and a pair of arthropod inclusions. For 5 Myrmecos points, be the first commentator to correctly guess the subfamily of the ant. For 5 more, be the first to guess the genus. [...]
Over at Compound Eye I’ve posted photos of a remarkable Australian ant-mimic spider: An Enemy in the Ranks
I haven’t any idea how Cookie Monster relates to our usual buggy topics, but you’ll feel happier after watching this:
And now, a parable from my recent Australia trip. One morning, in the forests of Cape Tribulation, I happened across a lovely stag beetle. I took it back to the cabin where I’d set up an insect mini-studio. My photography session did not go smoothly, however. The set was persistently interrupted by pesky Tapinoma melanocephalum [...]
It’s very nearly Friday, and I am late in answering the mystery of the squashed mosquito. What was it? 10 points to Jason C for his correct answer of Psorophora ciliata. I’m only 80% confident that P. ciliata is the right species, so I am also awarding 5 points to Catherine Nalen for the congener Psorophora [...]
In the news this morning, a story about people who make a tidy living hunting weaver ant brood: Tradition dictates that a Javanese man must possess five things to be a real man: a house, a woman, a horse, a dagger and a caged bird. The obsession with birds has spread to other ethnic groups, [...]
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 7D ISO 200, f/13, 1/250 sec diffuse twin flash
Several years ago in Florida, I was bitten one evening by a mosquito. I promptly swatted her and fed the remains to hungry Pheidole ants. We do a lot of ant mysteries, so let’s mix it up this week and go for the fly instead. So: what is the mosquito? I will award points to the [...]
What is my favorite ant? Turtle ants, of course. Wait! No. Army ants! I think. Or, maybe leafcutters. This is a hard question. Regardless of my paralyzing myrmecological indecision, one ant that always lurks near the top of my favorites list is Leptomyrmex, the charmingly slender spider ant of Australia and New Guinea. I was fortunate [...]
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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