Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
I was out inspecting the bees last week when I noticed a gaudy pair of longhorn beetles walking about on the back of one of the hives. Neoclytus! Surely one of our prettiest native insects. I hastily stuffed the pair in a jar to photograph later. The male spent a most of their brief stay in [...]
Here’s something I did not know. Some South American dung beetles have given up their usual fecal diet to prey actively on ant queens: I can’t say I blame them. Luiz Forti reports in a recent issue of Psyche: Canthon virens exhibited 28 behaviors while predating upon Atta sp. queens. Adult beetles search for queens while flying in a [...]
I photographed this little longhorn beetle yesterday stuffing its face with pollen as it ran among the flowers making a mess of things. Of course, such sloppy eaters work to the plant’s advantage. When this beetle takes off for the next bush up the street it will be positively spilling over with the gametes needed [...]
I took a break from ant-hunting at Konza Prairie last week to poke around for whatever other buggy treasures I might find. This little jewel beetle was quite cooperative, sitting gently in a dandelion to feed on pollen. I’m going to leave this one as Acmeaodera sp., unless the more coleopterologically adept of you wishes to offer [...]
Monday’s Coleopterous Challenge has gone on quite long enough. Who was the odd beetle out? It was this ground beetle, in with a sea of darkling beetles: Tenebrionid expert Kojun Kanda not only picks up 10 points for instantaneously identifying the mystery beetle, but 2 bonus points for naming pretty much all the other beetles [...]
What was Monday’s delightful little beetle? It was this: Points are awarded as follows: 5 points to Guilherme Ide for being the first to family, 5 points to Morgan Jackson for getting the genus, and one point to Ainsley, for this. You guys are fast. I had to look this one up.
The Friday Beetle returns with an animal made famous by the late Tom Eisner: If you can direct your attention away from the metallic colors for a moment, have a look at those massive foot pads. Eisner & Aneshansley (2000) noted the remarkable adhesive power of the pads and figured out how they work: Abstract: [...]
A now-classic tale of natural history:
Why didn’t anyone tell me that Myrmecosaurus is an actual thing?
Most of us think of beetles as heavily armored and often colorful tank-like animals. But they aren’t born that way. Like all insects with complete metamorphosis, beetles start as grublike larvae bearing little resemblance to the adults. I photographed these two immature rove beetles while searching for ants in a rotting log. photo details: Canon MP-E [...]
A personal blog 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? Email alwild [at] myrmecos.net; or follow @Myrmecos on Twitter.
