Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
According to Google Trends, that is: Insofar as internet search interest in particular insects reflects infestation levels, it seems summer 2010 is a banner year for our little cimicid friends. Peaks occur every summer as rising temperatures increase both the reproductive rate of the bugs and their motility. Incidentally, it’s a shame Gawker can’t seem [...]
As so many of you guessed, the Getty Taxonomy Fail was not an Atta but an Acromyrmex. JasonC- who is rapidly emerging as the Monday Night Superstar- was the first to pick it. Eight points for getting the answer right and most of the way there with a supporting explanation. Two more points to NKanakis [...]
A few days ago I posted a photo of a Prenolepis ant queen. It’s a decent photo, in focus and properly exposed. But probably not anything I’d print out and hang on the wall. Check out the monochrome version above, though (click on it to enlarge). I don’t often put my images through such severe [...]
Penthe pimelia (Tetratomidae) Illinois, USA A couple years back I was working on the Beetle Tree of Life project as a molecular phylogeneticist. My main responsibility was to gather DNA sequence data for several hundred beetles distributed across the spectrum of Coleopteran diversity. As I’m not a Coleopterist, I spent most of my time lost [...]
Wasmannia auropunctata – little fire ants Buenos Aires, Argentina One of the world’s worst invaders, the little fire ants have spread from the new world tropics to warmer regions around the globe, becoming especially problematic on oceanic islands. The ants above, though, are from an innocuous native population in northern Argentina. They arrived at a [...]
A big day for ant evolution! The Ant Tree of Life research group (AToL) has published their dolichoderine phylogeny in the journal Systematic Biology. Dolichoderines are one of the big ant subfamilies, comprising just under ten percent of the world’s ant species. These are dominant, conspicuous ants noted for having ditched the heavy ancestral ant [...]
“Ah, an easy one!” you might think. But no. I’m only handing out 4 points for identifying this common Illinois ant species. I’m more interested in this ant’s quarry, for six points: 2 each for order, family, and genus. First correct guess in each category gets the points. The cumulative point winner at the end [...]
I’ve moved some of my better termite photos to a new gallery at alexanderwild.com. Go visit.
No, not really. I’m just kidding. Wouldn’t it be great to have an ant field guide, though? Off and on for the past couple years I’ve been playing with concepts. A potential format is this (click to download pdf): The salient features, in my opinion: Targeted at the general naturalist, so less technical than the [...]
Tenebrio molitor, pupa Tenebrio molitor is a darkling beetle known more for its immature stages than for its adults. It is the ubiquitous mealworm. You can buy these granivorous beetles at any pet store as food for fish, birds, and reptiles. The above shot of a developing pupa requires two sources of light. A flash [...]
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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