As far as I know, I’ve just uploaded the first living photographs ever taken of the rare African ant Aenictogiton. Go see.
Aenictogiton (Kibale Forest, Uganda)
Based on genetics and morphology, this creature is probably an army ant. Someone will have to spend time finding and watching the ever-elusive workers to confirm, though.
This individual was one of the treasures collected at Ant Course/Uganda in August.
A personal blog by Illinois-based biologist and photographer Alex Wild.
Wow, very nice Alex. Do you achieve the white background with image editing software?
Hi Tom. Thanks for the kind words. The white background is a white mylar substance, but I do a little post-processing to bring up the levels and remove bits of dirt. Here’s how I did a similar image: http://myrmecos.net/2011/05/10/processing-a-field-guide-photo/
It is a very curious genus. May be seven species but most are known from single male specimens. Perhaps they are parasitic with only the males ever taking flight?
[...] our series of “the first photographs of X”, below are what I suspect to be the first living [...]
The male I collected, I believe = ).