Alex Wild
awild
Posts by this author
March 9, 2010
Although this paper is several years old, I still read through it for a good laugh now and again. It's a bold attempt by Aussie myrmecologist Alan Andersen to remedy the dearth of ant common names. Hilarity ensues.
Snugglepot Ant?
As we know, ants are too small and too numerous for most species…
March 8, 2010
Alright, Sherlock. What's going on here?
Five points each for the identity of the big round thing, for the insect at the top, and for the insect at the side. Ten points for describing the story.
And a freebie point to anyone who comes up with an idea for what to do with all these points.
This…
March 8, 2010
I apologize for the slow blogging. I've been under the weather this weekend, and what energy I could muster went to more pressing things. Like patching an unfortunate hole in the kitchen wall from when the doorstop failed.
I also had some minor paperwork. I am being contracted to work remotely for…
March 4, 2010
Who's that odd ant out?
While in sunny Florida last summer (ah, sunshine! I vaguely remember what that looks like), I spent an hour peering into a nest of little Dorymyrmex elegans. These slender, graceful ants are among Florida's more charming insects.
Every few minutes, though, the flow of…
March 3, 2010
I understand the product works by converting fire ant DNA into that of other species.
March 2, 2010
What was that bizarre balloon-spangled creature?
It's the larva of a Theope butterfly in the family Riodinidae. Here is the full photo, from Panama:
Theope, tended by Azteca velox
An infinite number of highly valuable Myrmecos Points(â¢) go to commentator JasonC, who not only identified the larva…
March 2, 2010
Here's a chart I made this morning. It depicts the number of new photos tagged "insects" or "insect" uploaded over the history of the leading photo-sharing site Flickr. Note that the graph doesn't show the cumulative total of insect photos on the site; rather, it shows the increase from year-to-…
March 1, 2010
What's this?
Five points for picking the family, five points for the genus. And infinity points for figuring out what the those balloon-like structures are for. I have no idea.
February 28, 2010
A short clip from the BBC program "Ant Attack"
Driver ant males are astoundingly strange creatures. They are larger, more muscular, more exaggerated than most other male ants. The reason is likely linked to the behavior shown in the above video: males must first be accepted by a gauntlet of choosy…
February 26, 2010
Bob Goldstein at UNC has been making some truly divine posters to advertise the talks of scientists visiting the Biology department. They are awesome.
February 25, 2010
Speaking of bug horror movies:
If you can make it to Champaign-Urbana this weekend, the 2010 Insect Fear Film Festival will feature The Black Scorpion (1957) and Ice Crawlers (2003). The grad students are assembling art displays, face painting, and an impressively large arthropod petting zoo. The'…
February 25, 2010
The Great Ant Escape
Incidentally, what's up with the obvious photoshop job in the accompanying image? It looks like a chorus line.
*update* - it seems they've swapped the image out for a more sensible one. The original is here.
February 24, 2010
Acyrthociphon pisum, the Pea Aphid
The genome sequence of the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum was published today in PLoS. Concurrently, a set of supporting papers has come out in Insect Molecular Biology. This genome is significant for a number of reasons- it's the first Hemipteran genome to be…
February 23, 2010
...at the scope.
Photo details: Tamron SP 11-18mm 4.5 on a Canon EOS 50D
ISO 800, f4.5, 1/50 sec
February 23, 2010
A video from Cambridge University highlights an infectiously enthusiastic Chris Clemente as he figures out how ants stick to smooth surfaces:
Wow.
Two things strike me about the video. First, they simplified the science for a lay audience without fundamentally changing it. That's something of a…
February 22, 2010
Zootermopsis soldier termite, jaws at the ready.
If you think of termites as pasty white squishy things, here's one that'll jar your preconceptions. Zootermopsis dampwood termites of western North America have large soldiers- over a centimeter long- that are muscular and well armored.
Soldiers…
February 21, 2010
As winter doesn't have much insect activity, it's the season I use to work on my equipment. Yesterday I tried out a new arrangement to diffuse the heads on my mt-24ex twin flash when the heads are mounted on long, moveable arms. Here's a time-lapse video showing the construction, plus a short…
February 19, 2010
Ostoma pippingskoeldi, Sierra Nevada, California
If you peel back the bark of an old stump in the forests of western North America, there's a good chance you'll find some of these attractive tank-like insects. This is Ostoma pippingskoeldi, a predatory beetle in the family Trogossitidae. They…
February 18, 2010
The inaugural blog carnival celebrating the Beetles is now online- go see!
February 17, 2010
Timema sp. stick insect, California
I've created a new gallery to hold my photographs of stick insects. Check it out here:
Stick Insect Photos
February 16, 2010
I am impressed. Several of you* figured out the mystery behavior: reflex bleeding, a defensive response employed by some arthropods with especially nasty hemolymph to deter predators. A couple of you even pegged the identity of the mystery arthropod, a blister beetle in the genus Epicauta. Here's…
February 16, 2010
The online early section of Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution this week has the first comprehensive phylogeny of a rather important genus of ants: Myrmica.
Myrmica is ubiquitous in the colder climates of North America and Eurasia, with a few seemingly incongruous species inhabiting the…
February 15, 2010
What's going on here?
Five points for naming the organism, and five points for the behavior.
February 15, 2010
We here at Myrmecos Blog don't care to voice our opinion of talk show host Glenn Beck. But we are rather enamored of dung beetles, those gorgeously ornamented insects who prevent the world from being buried in feces.
Thus, we were pleased to find the following Facebook project in our inbox this…
February 14, 2010
From the amazing BBC series Life in the Undergrowth:
February 12, 2010
Tapinoma sessile, the odorous house ant, with larvae
Last summer I replaced the old covering on our porch roof. When I peeled back the rotting shingles, I was greeted by a frenzy of frenetic brown ants- thousands of them- running about every which way. Dozens of fat queens scurried for cover. It…