[note: this and all preceding entries are reposted from myrmecos.wordpress.com; guesses for this Monday Night Mystery are also lodged here.]
What in the world is this strange creature?
The point breakdown* will be as follows:
2 points for order
2 points for family
2 points for genus
2 points for species
2 points for describing the behavior
As in past weeks, you have to be first in each category.
*What are Myrmecos points good for? The cumulative winner at the end of the month gets to choose either 1)any 8x10 print from alexanderwild.com, or 2) a guest blog post on a topic of their choosing.
- Log in to post comments
Welcome Alex, good to see you back.
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Genus: Cephalotes
Species: rohweri
The colony nests in holes left by wood-boring beetles and soldier ants block the nest entrance with their heads (as here).
Would love to say that I had expert knowledge but google is my friend.
Source ....
alexanderwild.com
Was that cheating?
And then of course I wander over to look at your old blog....
Now, see, I feel better having read that bit of information from dominich. I was looking at that hole last night thinking it was a pretty nice D-shaped Buprestid-ey hole...but clearly a Buprestid was not lying within. I wanted the answer to this mystery to be "a beetle". I'm happy to know it is. A little bit. Sort of.
Hey, you should submit this photo to the Linnaean Games for the ESA national meeting.
That's an awesome idea. The Linnaean games are great- our local team here at UI cleaned up last year in Indianapolis.
Coleoptera
Carabidae
Cychrus
Cychrus caraboides
Moist woodlands, feeds primarily on snails.