Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
I was browsing eBay’s amber offerings when I stumbled across this rather interesting item: It’s a ring bearing a piece of Baltic amber and a pair of arthropod inclusions. For 5 Myrmecos points, be the first commentator to correctly guess the subfamily of the ant. For 5 more, be the first to guess the genus. [...]
It’s very nearly Friday, and I am late in answering the mystery of the squashed mosquito. What was it? 10 points to Jason C for his correct answer of Psorophora ciliata. I’m only 80% confident that P. ciliata is the right species, so I am also awarding 5 points to Catherine Nalen for the congener Psorophora [...]
Several years ago in Florida, I was bitten one evening by a mosquito. I promptly swatted her and fed the remains to hungry Pheidole ants. We do a lot of ant mysteries, so let’s mix it up this week and go for the fly instead. So: what is the mosquito? I will award points to the [...]
What, dear readers, is this? The first commentator to guess the species of this animal will win ten Myrmecos points. The cumulative points winner for the month of January will take home their choice of 1) any 8×10-sized print from my photo galleries, or 2) a guest post here on Myrmecos.
When I first observed Prolasius through my viewfinder, I was surprised at just how… average it looked. It was small, but not excessively. Its limbs were of medium length. It was brown. It had few salient features. It was, in fact, just about as plain as an ant can be. Perfect, in other words, for an [...]
Myrmecos is an ant blog. This evening’s challenge returns to our roots with a straight-up ant identification. What is it? The first commentator to guess the Genus will win ten points. For full credit, answers must be accompanied by supporting character information. The cumulative points winner for the month of January will take home their [...]
The MNM took an entire month off, but you guys are still sharp as a fossorial foreleg. What was that strange entomological extravagance? All ten points go to Kojun, who took less than 20 minutes to converge on the correct answer: the image showed the antenna of an ant-nest beetle in the ground beetle subfamily [...]
The Monday Mystery returns with an especially odd insect antenna: To what sort of insect does this bizarre instrument belong? To earn points, be the first to correctly guess: Order (2 pt) Family (3 pts) Subfamily (5 pts) The cumulative points winner for the month of January will take home their choice of 1) any [...]
What was that unidentified arboreal object? It was a bagworm: Warren acted on this one with lightning speed, earning all ten points. Additional points go to Invictacidal (2 pts) for guessing the tree, and to hongmei (1 pt), for adding the taxonomic authorship. Thus, the November Mysteries draw to a close. Nice work, everyone. Since [...]
This odd-looking lump is, believe it or not, entomological. What is it? Points will be awarded to the first person to pick the identification, as follows: order (2 pts) family (3 pts) genus/species (5 pts) The cumulative points winner for the month of November will take home their choice of 1) any 8×10-sized print from [...]
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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