Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
Giant ants of the South American genus Dinoponera are unusual in lacking a separate queen caste. Instead, colonies comprise outwardly identical workers, a subset of which mate and lay eggs. Are the ants inwardly identical as well? Not at all, according to a new study by Chris R. Smith et al in PLoS ONE. Foraging [...]
And now some bad news. A new study by Mariano Rodriguez-Cabal in Biological Invasions appears to document an unfortunate effect of the ongoing Pachycondyla chinensis needle ant invasion: a decrease in wild evergreen ginger plants. Abstract: By disrupting the structure of native ant assemblages, invasive ants can have effects across trophic levels. Most studies to date, [...]
So, the Arizona Ant Course wrapped up this weekend. I didn’t attend this year, but I know some Myrmecos readers made the trip. How was it? What were the highlights of Ant Course 2011?
A picture is worth 1000 words: Made from a test tube, cotton, and water, this simple setup is sufficient for most ant species. Fill a test tube about 1/2 full with water. Plunge cotton into the water until it is wet but not soggy. Seal the queen in with a dry cotton plug. The genius [...]
Ever wonder how Walter Tschinkel makes those amazing casts of ant nests? All is revealed here:
Thanks to myrmecologist Benoit Guenard, I recently had the opportunity to photograph live Pachycondyla chinensis in a laboratory setting. This species- sometimes called the Asian Needle Ant- was introduced accidentally to the southeastern United States over half a century ago, and where it occurs it seems to displace many native ants. What is particularly odd [...]
I’ve been increasingly bothered that my myrmecological galleries contain perhaps a few too many ants, and not quite enough ant scientists. My existing galleries cover a lot of basic diversity and biology. But myrmecology is done by people, after all. And the people who study ants are as warm, funny, quirky, and downright human as [...]
Myrmecos was extra slow last week. For that, I apologize. My absence was for a good cause, though. We were in North Carolina for a simply lovely wedding on the beach. As a number of myrmecologists were in attendance, we mounted ant-hunting expeditions to the neighboring coastal forests. Below are photographs from the field:
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be a field scientist studying ant diversity in the wild, check out these accounts: Brian Fisher – Scientist At Work (NY Times) Alex Smith – ACG Ant Collections
[correction: When the genome paper first emerged I stated that the genomes would not be made public. This impression- due to a lag time between online publication and data release- was erroneous, and I hope the authors accept my apology.] A few days have passed since the publication by Bonasio et al of the first [...]
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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