Alex Wild
awild
Posts by this author
November 23, 2008
I've posted enough Friday Beetles that I can no longer remember which species I've already done. Some species were almost posted twice out of sheer forgetfulness. Must be the academic scatter-brain.
So to keep them all straight I've made a list. This is mostly for my own good. In any case,…
November 22, 2008
I sometimes wonder if a major reason why most people don't really get insects is the difference in pace between how we and how the insects move in the world.
Insects live faster than we do, their everyday motions an erratic, unintelligible blur to our sluggish perceptions. But slow them down so…
November 21, 2008
My copy arrived from Amazon the day before yesterday. I've not given it anything more than a couple cursory thumb-throughs, but I'm immediately left with the impression of schizophrenia.
The bits on social organization, behavior, communication, and levels of selection- mostly Bert Hoelldobler's…
November 21, 2008
Priacma serrata - Bleach Beetle
California
Priacma serrata is an enigmatic insect from the conifer forests of western North America and is one of a handful of species belonging to the relictual beetle suborder Archostemata. It is often thought of as a "living fossil", bearing a strong…
November 20, 2008
Atta cephalotes
Leafcutting ants of the genus Atta have perhaps the most complex caste systems of all the social insects. Mature colonies contain millions of workers of varying shapes and sizes. Here are two sisters from opposing ends of the spectrum.
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro…
November 18, 2008
In the comments, Rob Clack asks:
Iâve just read about Martialis on Pandaâs Thumb and have a question. If I interpret it correctly, your cladogram shows Martialis to be the sister group of all living ants. Since it was blind and many living genera are not, that presumably implies that vision…
November 18, 2008
A young adult Comperia merceti, a parasitoid wasp in the family Encyrtidae, emerges from the egg case of its cockroach host.
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D
ISO 100, f/11, 1/200 sec, flash diffused through tracing paper
November 17, 2008
While you're at it, why not just have a good old-fashioned book-burning?
November 16, 2008
Pyramica ludovici - KZN, South Africa
I am still working through the South African ant photos I took this July. Progress is slow. I'm not terribly familiar with the African fauna, and the species have to be keyed out and checked against the literature so I can post images with the proper…
November 15, 2008
Sometimes, it's best not to interject statistics into your personal life.
h/t Podblack Cat
November 15, 2008
A few places where myrmecos.net photographs have recently appeared:
La Banque de Savoirs has a French-language slideshow featuring several of my images.
The BBC illustrates a recent news item on the link between pests and climate change using an Argentine Ant photo from my back yard in California.…
November 14, 2008
Nosodendron californicum - Wounded Tree Beetle
California, USA
From the Department of Really Obscure Insects, here's a beetle that few non-specialists will recognize. Nosodendron inhabits the rotting tissue of long-festering tree wounds. These beetles are not rare so much as specialized to an…
November 13, 2008
Atta cephalotes carrying leaves, Ecuador
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution this morning has the first detailed molecular phylogeny of the leafcutting ant genus Atta. MaurÃcio Bacci et al sequenced several mitochondrial genes and the nuclear gene EF-1a from 13 of the 15 described species-…
November 12, 2008
Kaspari et al. discover that coastal ants avoid salt while inland ants can't get enough.
Kaspari, M., Yanoviak, S. P., and Dudley, R. 2008. On the biogeography of salt limitation: a study of ant communities. PNAS early edition, doi…
November 12, 2008
If they gave out awards for Goofiest Bug, Psocoptera (Bark Lice) would surely make the short list.
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D
ISO 100, f/13, 1/250 sec, flash diffused through tracing paper
November 11, 2008
"Magic circle - Venezuela" by Benoit Guenard
The NCSU insect blog has announced its 2008 photo contest winners.
Myrmecologist Benoit Guenard took Best in Show for his "Magic Circle" macro of a stingless bee nest. Deservedly, in my opinion. That's an awesome shot.
November 10, 2008
Neivamyrmex army ants attacking a pavement ant, California
I see this morning that Daniel Kronauer has published a review of army ant biology in Myrmecological News. The paper, among other topics, attempts to straighten out some key terminology:
AenEcDo army ant: a connotation free abbreviation…
November 9, 2008
Aenictus aratus - Queensland
In my utterly unbiased opinion, Australia hosts the most charismatic ant fauna of all the continents. Except for their army ants, that is. While South America is bursting at the seams with scores of Eciton, Labidus, and Neivamyrmex, and Africa has hoardes of…
November 7, 2008
Chrysina beyeri - Beyer's Scarab - Arizona
Arizona's Jewel Scarabs emerge after the onset of summer rains. These large insects have something of a cult following among collectors, and enthusiasts from around the world descend on the Sonoran desert every monsoon season with their mercury vapor…
November 6, 2008
Another myrmecologist joins the blogosphere!
Scott Solomon is a biologist who studies Brazilian leafcutter ants. He also happens to be a fine writer, and his blog is full of stories about hunting ants in remote jungles.
November 5, 2008
As I've gotten more serious about photography, the single biggest change I've made is to premeditate my photo sessions. Instead of haphazardly shooting whichever subjects happen across my lens- my habit during my first few years with a camera- I tend now to have a particular image in mind well in…
November 4, 2008
...and the woman behind me was holding a tearful and very disappointed three year old girl.
"She thought we were going 'boating'," she explained.
October 31, 2008
Braconid wasps attacking caterpillar - pumpkin by Lorenzo Rodriguez
Urbana, Illinois
October 29, 2008
My main blogging computer has gone down again. So, light posting the next few days.
I'm trying to decide whether to fix my 3-year old PC desktop, or just suck it up and drop the money for a new Mac. Windows Vista- which I've been using in the lab- is terrible and I can't see myself going back…
October 28, 2008
I could spend hours looking at Princess Peppercloud's playful, stylistic take on the lives of ants. Do yourself a big happy favor and pay the princess a visit.
October 27, 2008
Jim Wetterer has a paper out in Myrmecological News detailing the global spread of the ghost ant Tapinoma melanocephalum. This diminutive dolichoderine is quite possibly the most widely distributed ant in the world, a hitchhiker on human globalization, thriving in the wake of human-wrought…
October 26, 2008
A True Fruit Fly - Tephritidae
Fruit flies are a family, Tephritidae, containing about 5,000 species of often strikingly colored insects. As the name implies, these flies are frugivores. Many, such as the mediterranean fruit fly, are agricultural pests.
Drosophila melanogaster, the insect that…