Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
Hey all. I’m briefly back in internet contact, so I thought I’d share a shot from this afternoon. It shows a treehopper species whose adults have the same size, shape, and color of the abdomen of the Cephalotes atratus turtle ants that tend them: Anyone know the species? I’ve not had time to look it [...]
I could do without the patronizing narration, but National Geographic’s footage of Pseudomyrmex acacia-ants is worth your time:
It occurs to me that I don’t post nearly enough ants. Click “continue reading” and scroll down. That should take care of it.
Please welcome the shiny new ant genera Tanipone and Vicinopone to the world’s ant fauna! The new genera emerge from a detailed taxonomic study of the Malagasy and Afrotropical genus Simopone, published this week by Barry Bolton and Brian Fisher in an open-access monograph in Zootaxa. source: Bolton B., Fisher B.L. 2012. Taxonomy of the cerapachyine ant genera Simopone [...]
One of Josh King’s lab ants at the University of Central Florida. The blunt head serves as a living door to this species’ twig nests. 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
You may be familiar with the California Academy of Science’s extremely popular Ant Course, which offers intensive taxonomic training in a once-a-year workshop held at an exotic locale. Ant Course is fantastic, with all its taxonomicky taxonomy and systematicky systematics. What if your anty interests, however, tend more to ecology and behavior? A new course [...]
If you follow myrmecology on the internet, you probably know about Benoit Guenard’s Global Ants database. Benoit has spent years combing disparate biological literature and natural history collections to compile a comprehensive map of where all the 300-some ant genera are known to live. This information is useful in its own right (want to know [...]
[the following is a guest post by Rob Dunn] A few weeks ago I went to elementary school in Italy. I had been asked to visit one of the schools where professors at the University of Parma have been working with children to study ants. There were three of us on the expedition. The other [...]
If you look closely when opening large ant nests in the northern hemisphere temperate zone, there is a good chance you’ll see ant crickets. These flattened, wingless insects are kleptoparasites living among ant colonies, stealing food and tricking the ants into feeding them. The common species where we live in the midwest is the eastern [...]
Here is the peer-reviewed statement about the fire ant Solenopsis geminata‘s pest potential, written by professional biologists at IUCN: Solenopsis geminata has spread almost world-wide by human commerce. It usually invades open areas but can easily colonise human infrastructure and agricultural systems, such as coffee and sugarcane plantations in hot climates. Its greatest known threats are its [...]
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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