Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
Pheidole metallescens, photographed in Gainesville, Florida Mention a blue ant to any self-respecting myrmecologist and most will think of Australia. The great southern continent hosts an abundance of ants in spectacular metallic hues of blue, purple, and green. As you can see above, though, we Americans aren’t entirely bereft of iridescent formicids. I happened across these adorable [...]
This ant looks like it’s wearing the insect equivalent of tuxedo shorts. Formal wear and pasty white legs. If you visit Cape Tribulation, keep an eye out for these little insects. Only 2-3 millimeters long, they are one of the most common ants in that area. I found them nesting in nearly every rotting log [...]
Ant enthusiasts know Pheidole as a common genus where each nest has two distinct worker types: small minors and big majors. But a few odd species add one more: enormous supermajors. You can see all three in the photo above of the Arizona species Pheidole tepicana. This afternoon, developmental biologists at McGill University and University [...]
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Doesn’t “bigote” mean “moustache” in Spanish? Why, yes. It does. Pheidole bigote Longino 2009 Chiapas, Mexico The inimitable Jack Longino published a taxonomic paper today on the Central American Pheidole, including descriptions of some 23 new species. Among these is the marvelously moustached P. bigote. The function of the fantastic facial hair remains unknown. source: [...]
A recent study by Gabriela Pirk in Insectes Sociaux provides me with an excuse to share this photo: Pirk et al examined the diet of both Pheidole species in the Monte desert of Northern Argentina. Why would someone spend time doing this? Ants are important dispersers of seeds, and these Pheidole are two of the [...]
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f/13, flash diffused through tracing paper
A study out in pre-print by Muscedere, Willey, and Traniello in the journal Animal Behaviour finds little support for a long-held idea that worker ants change specializations to perform different types of work as they age. By creating colonies out of different age classes in the ant Pheidole dentata, the researchers showed that older workers [...]
Pheidole moerens is a small, barely noticeable insect that travels about with human commerce, arriving without announcement and slipping quietly into the leaf litter and potted plants about town. As introduced ants go, P. moerens is timid and innocuous- it’s certainly no fire ant. The species is now present in the southeastern United States, a [...]
Pheidole rugithorax Eguchi 2008 – Vietnam In today’s Zootaxa, Katsuyuki Eguchi has a taxonomic revision of the northern Vietnamese Pheidole, recognizing six new ant species for a genus that is already the world’s most diverse. The revision also contains several nomeclatural changes and a key to the thirty or so species occurring in the region. [...]
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.
