Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
You guys are fast. I’m not. I have waited until Thursday to answer Monday’s Art Mystery. 10 points go to Warren for being the first to register the correct answer: Salvador Dali. Plus, I’ll throw an extra 2 to Guillaume for smart commentary. For context about this mystery, you’ll want to visit José’s fascinatingly thorough Salvador Dali’s [...]
You may remember Wesley Fleming, the glass artist I blogged about last year. It seems he’s accomplished a remarkable new piece: a leafcutter ant infected with a parasitic Cordyceps fungus. As far as I know this is the first Cordyceps ever created from glass. If you’d like to see it in person, this and some [...]
Theo Jansen’s amazing roaming artwork: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7Ny5BYc-Fs] more here and here.
A: Check your house for any signs of ant-art. If, for instance, your garage sports a giant blue Azteca, you might have developed a myrmecological fixation. On the other hand, if you consider yourself an ant-lover but lack any obvious ant adornments, you’re falling behind. Pick up some paint and get to work! (This garage [...]
Here’s a novel use for an ant photo. German designer Beat Hintermann induced a party of wedding guests to individually color in squares from one of my images of fighting Odontomachus. The pieces were then assembled as a gift to the happy couple. Both, I’m told, study the aggressive interactions of ants. Love can arise [...]
This photo was ultimately rejected for a journal cover (it was the wrong shape!) but I shot it to accompany a research article that used museum specimens of midwestern bumblebees to compare current levels of genetic diversity with previous decades. Since this image won’t appear in print anytime soon, I thought I’d share it here [...]
A comment left on this blog last week alerted me to the sublime glasswork of artist Wesley Fleming. Wow. Not only are the pieces aesthetically stunning, they are also largely anatomically accurate. Legs attached to the right spots, tarsal segments counted out, tibial spurs in place. If you have a few minutes, do yourself a [...]
I could spend hours looking at Princess Peppercloud’s playful, stylistic take on the lives of ants. Do yourself a big happy favor and pay the princess a visit.
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.
