Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
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 [...]
The journal Science has just reported the first ant genome study. Well, the first ant genomes. A pair of them, from the Florida Carpenter Ant Camponotus floridanus and the Indian jumping ant Harpegnathos saltator, both study animals in the lab of Arizona State University’s Juergen Liebig. Abstract: The organized societies of ants include short-lived worker [...]
My photo of two Formica nestmates accompanies the latest salvo in the long-standing argument over the roles of Kin Selection and Group Selection in the emergence of eusociality. I disagree with the conclusion that kin selection has little to do with social evolution, but as I’m short on blogging time today I will spare you [...]
If you’ll direct your attention to the top-right of this blog, you should notice a new tab labeled North American Ants. It links to a page intended as a visual survey, at the genus level, of the various ants that inhabit the continent. The more astute among you will notice a few missing genera. In [...]
Ants are accomplished architects, but most people would never know it. That’s because ant nests are often underground and impossible to observe directly, with the consequence that we don’t know as much about ant-built structures as we do about those of the more open-nesting bees and wasps. Enter Walter Tschinkel. Walt and his students have [...]
[a guest post by myrmecologist Andrea Lucky] It was a dark and stormy night… …actually, it was a dark and stormy morning. The dawn of the 7th day of ceaseless frigid rain to be precise, and I was reminiscing about the grand old days one week before when the sun emerged and for a glorious [...]
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
|
| Blog: |
| Myrmecos |
|
Topics:
|
| Insects, Photography, Science |
|
|
