Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
Several years ago Australian myrmecologist Alan Andersen proposed a set of categories for arranging ant species by “functional group“. These groups carried names like “cold-climate specialists,” and “subordinate camponotines,” and they were widely adopted by ecologists for their ease of use. The scheme also drew considerable ire from taxonomists, especially since the categories were somewhat [...]
A slide from my lecture tomorrow morning on social insects: Years ago I held the opinion that social insects were too alien, their concerns too remote from our own, to enlighten us about the nature of our human societies. I’ve since come around to a more nuanced perspective. It is certainly still true that ants’ [...]
Is it Friday already? Crum. It’s been a busy week and I’ve neglected to answer the Case of the Amber Ring. Points go to Julie Stalhut (5 pts) for being first to subfamily and to MarekB for being first to genus (5pts), with 1 pt each awarded to SteveS & Vincent Perrichot for suggesting the [...]
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 [...]
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
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 [...]
An ad for Aussie underwear: Can anyone name the ant species?
The following announcement was sent in by Paleomyrmecologist Vincent Perrichot: Fossil Ants (Antweb) Regular users of Antweb may have noticed that a project named Fossil ants was added some months ago (www.antweb.org/fossil.jsp); a few technical issues prevented the imaged species to show up correctly, however, resulting in only a few visible species fully illustrated. These [...]
With all the recent attention devoted to Pheidole‘s apparently latent ability to produce supermajor workers at the drop of a hormone, now is an opportune time to mention Pheidole fimbriata. Pheidole fimbriata is, according to Corrie Moreau’s research, the single sister species to the remaining 1000+ in the genus. That is, the first thing to happen when Pheidole first [...]
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
|
| Blog: |
| Myrmecos |
|
Topics:
|
| Insects, Photography, Science |
|
|
