Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
I know some of you young folks are thinking of becoming professional entomologists. That’s a fine career choice. Intellectually stimulating. Full of adventure and intrigue. Before you decide to embark on such an unusual professional journey, though, you’d do well to know how full-time entomologists spend their days: Ha! Just kidding. For a glimpse at [...]
In today’s Zootaxa, Jolley-Rogers et al propose a novel way to electronically tag insect collections: A new, ultra-small, light-activated microtransponder (“p-Chip”) has been integrated into the heads of entomological pins to improve efficiency in collections management and research through radio frequency identification (RFID) of insect specimens. These specimens are typically small, fragile, numerous and especially difficult to [...]
The following is a guest post by Tucker Lancaster of the Blue Egg Blog. Flipping through the glossy pages of a Bioquip catalogue, you would think that entomology is a rather expensive pursuit. But, it doesn’t have to be. As an amateur entomologist, I’ve never had money to blow on equipment. Therefore, the majority of [...]
I woke this morning to see I’d been linked by astroblogger Phil Plait, reminding me of a pontification I’ve been meaning to pontificate. All fields of science are more unknown than known. That’s pretty much a given considering the span between the enormity of the Universe and the subatomic details of its smallest particles. But [...]
PNAS yesterday carried breaking news by Rust and colleagues of extensive new fossil Indian amber deposits dating to about 50 million years ago and holding exquisitely preserved fossils. How important is this find? It’s huge. Not only does the discovery add an older record to bridge the excellent Dominican (15 mya) and Baltic (40 mya) [...]
Tapinoma sessile Say 1836 Among the first species that students of North American ants learn is Tapinoma sessile, the odorous house ant. This small brown insect lives in nearly every temperate habitat across the continent. Sonoran desert washes? Check. Alpine meadows in the Sierra Nevada? Check. Wheat fields in Nebraska? Check. Long Island suburbs? Also. [...]
I had an assignment this weekend to shoot preserved insects as if in a museum display collection. Dead bugs aren’t normally my thing, but there’s something to be said about subjects that stay put and allow me to arrange lighting without scurrying off. I pinned the insects in foam-bottomed trays and reflected the strobe off [...]
Ok, so we all know this is a wasp. But what’s with the lumps near the tip of the abdomen? Ten points for identifying the lump, and five points for anyone ambitious enough to put a name on the wasp, too.
Alright, Sherlock. What’s going on here? Five points each for the identity of the big round thing, for the insect at the top, and for the insect at the side. Ten points for describing the story. And a freebie point to anyone who comes up with an idea for what to do with all these [...]
Mark this on your calendar: February 27 is the 27th annual Insect Fear Film Festival. Hosted by the entomology graduate students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the festival showcases two (usually terrible) arthropod movies. This year’s delectable offerings are The Black Scorpion (1957) and Ice Crawlers (2003). If bad movies aren’t your thing, [...]
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.
