… a key that’s supposed to help you identify “pest ants”. Or something.

http://www.pctonline.com/FileUploads/file/purdue_ants_species.pdf

(hint: that’s not a fire ant. It’s one of these)

Points will be awarded for the first correct answers to following:

1. Is this insect an adult, or a juvenile? (1 point)
2. What is the name of the structure with the bright yellow tips? (1 point)
3. To what order does this insect belong? (2 points)
4. To what family does this insect belong? (3 points)
5. To what genus does this insect belong? (3 points)

The cumulative points winner across all mysteries for the month of June will win their choice of 1) any 8×10-sized print from my insect photography galleries, or 2) a guest post here on Myrmecos.

Good luck!

Here’s the trailer for More Than Honey, released last week in the United States:

I’ve been disappointed with the credulity of previous efforts. This one does not strike me as being quite so over the top, though I’ve yet to watch it.

Have any of you seen More Than Honey?

Neoclytus acuminatus – red-headed ash borer.

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 the jar aggressively standing over his partner, as above. The pair would would periodically mate, but mostly they just sat, platonically, in this position. I’m guessing the male is mate-guarding, preventing others from accessing his female.

Neoclytus species are mimics of wasps, and this species bears colors similar to the common and painfully-stinging paper wasp, Polistes fuscatus. Presumably this mimicry confers some protection from wasp-shy predators.

Since I live just blocks from the city center, you might think the wildlife of my tiny yard would not be so interesting. Yet, urban gardens host plenty of little treasures.

photo details:
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens on a Canon EOS 7D
ISO 200, f/16, 1/200 sec
Diffuse overhead strobe

A dipluran, a common if confusing arthropod. Photographed in Urbana, Illinois.

Yesterday’s challenge was an unusual one, in that our ”What Is It?” lacks singular correct answers.

Our uncertainty is paradoxical, because on one hand this thing is obviously a dipluran- a small, entognathous hexapod. The formal classification is a different matter, however, and the problem stems from two distinct types of uncertainty.

First, formal studies suggest conflicting evolutionary relationships of Diplura. Some place these squishy little hexapods as sister to a strictly-defined Insecta, others as sister to Protura. The pattern of their descent remains unsettled. Second, philosophical differences over the best way to define these groups, and where to place our arbitrary ranks of Class, Order, Suborders, and so forth, means different researchers have settled on different taxonomic schemes. This, layered on a background of phylogenetic confusion.

So it is that a common animal can be defended as an insect, or a non-insect hexapod, its ordinal rank being Diplura, or Rhabdura.

Anyway. I will award points as follows:

5 to Thomas Shahan for being lightning-fast to suggest Diplura over on facebook. 5 points to Christopher Taylor for a thoughtful discussion of the problem. 2 points each to Guillaume D, GregZ, Dave, and Christopher Moore for their contributions. And, 2 points to Michael Suttkus for a point well made.

Weird.

Anyway. Here is what I was drawing 34 years ago. Amazingly (gasp!) it’s ants:

Clearly, I was into Formicinae from an early age.

I also have a mother who saved every scrap from my early artistic career. I was never quite sure what to do with these. But now I blog! Thanks, Mom.

Click Me!

My new Sigma 10mm fisheye lens allows me to cozy right up to an open ant nest and take a shot both of the nest interior and the colony’s forest habitat.

The ants are Aphaenogaster fulva, perhaps the most common woodland ant in my area. This particular nest is typical: large cavities in well-rotted wood in a fully shaded forest.

1. What is it? (Order; 5 points)
2. Is it an insect? (1 point) Why, or why not? (4 points)

Points will be awarded to the first person to give the correct identifications, and to everyone whose justifications for 2) seem well-reasoned. Yeah, it’s subjective. But that’s kind of the point, isn’t it?

The cumulative points winner across all mysteries for the month of June will win their choice of 1) any 8×10-sized print from my insect photography galleries, or 2) a guest post here on Myrmecos.

Good luck!

We only have four spaces remaining- you’ll want to register soon to reserve your spot!

http://bugshot.net/events/

More people would appreciate plants if they learned to see them in the right time frame, I suspect.