Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
Mid-February and central Illinois should be buried in snow. Instead, we’ve averaged 4-6 degrees above normal all winter. The crocuses are blooming, the daffodils are pushing up through the mud, and our resident Tapinoma are already raising up their first brood. Bizarre. Here are some photos from just now.
February is the most exciting time of year in Chambana, Illinois. Why? The Insect Fear Film Festival, of course! Doors open at 6:00 pm, February 25th, at Foellinger Hall on campus. This year’s theme is International Ant Films, featuring the awful-yet-inexplicably-awesome ant thrillers Glass Trap (2005) and Bone Snatcher (2003). The film festival also hosts a living [...]
This is the class I am teaching at the University of Illinois next spring: I asked May Berenbaum, who created this class years ago, about the main idea. She explained (paraphrase mine): I want students, 10 years from now, to see a bug on the sidewalk and appreciate it enough not to step on it. [...]
The late afternoon sun was hitting the goldenrod just right, so I snapped a few shots of a beetle enjoying the last nectar of the season. This species- the goldenrod soldier beetle- is common across eastern and central North America in late summer. photo details: Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens on a Canon EOS [...]
From this afternoon: The crisp, bright colors aren’t photoshop. They’re a polarizing filter, one of those inexpensive bits of equipment that make an inordinate difference to image quality. photo details: Canon EF 17-40mm F/4L wide angle zoom lens & circular polarizer on a Canon EOS 7D ISO 100, f/8 1/125 sec exposure
During the day our showy goldenrod (Solidago speciosa) is visited by the usual sun-loving suspects: bumble bees, sweat bees, hover flies, butterflies, and so on. I was curious about what happens after dark, though, so I just popped out to have a look. It’s nearly as active at night, too, but with a different set [...]
With the inferno summer sweltering on here in Illinois, the last of the Brood XIX 13-year periodical cicadas have dropped. We won’t be hearing them again until 2024, but their biomass is already filtering back through the forest ecosystem. I recently caught Camponotus chromaiodes in the act of scavenging the carcasses. photo details: (top)Canon MP-E 65mm [...]
At the last new moon I tagged along with some of the University of Illinois’ intrepid entomology graduate students on a collecting trip. On arriving at a patch of prairie outside of town, the students hung a mercury vapor lamp in front of a sheet, powered up a generator, and waited for the catch to [...]
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If you’re in the area of Rockford, Illinois tomorrow afternoon, I’ll be at the Discovery Center Museum speaking about bees & pollination, along with beekeeper Phillip Raines. I can almost guarantee that the most entertaining part of the afternoon will be watching me squirm during a screening of Vanishing of the Bees, another of those [...]
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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