Photography Links
awild | November 15, 2008A 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.
The Xerces Society- North America's premier invertebrate conservation group - is borrowing myrmecos.net images for banners here and here.
GIANT MICROBES, the folks responsible for plush Syphilis, are using images to accompany their new line of plush Lasius and Solenopsis.
awild | 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 environment where few entomologists think to look.  If you can spot the telltale stains of an old wound on the trunks of large trees, you should be able to find Nosodendron. They feed on the microbes- the yeast and bacteria- that grow in the sap leaking from the phloem.
There are, in fact, whole…
awild | 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
awild | 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.
awild | November 7, 2008Chrysina 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 lamps and blacklights to entice the lumbering beetles into their traps. The effects of this mass harvesting on Chrysina populations have not been studied, but they should be. I'd hate to lose such an attractive species.
Beyer's scarab, the largest Chrysina in the United States, feeds on oak foliage…
awild | November 5, 2008As 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 advance of a shoot. The timing and location of a session, the equipment, and the lighting are all planned accordingly.
Cephalotes atratus, the gliding ant. Panama, 2007.
This gliding ant in mid-air is a good example. A small insect in free fall is not the sort of thing one happens to point-and-…
awild | October 24, 2008
Chrysochus auratus - Dogbane Leaf Beetle
New York
At first glance one might mistake the dogbane leaf beetle for a creature of the tropical jungle, an exotic jewel sought after by the most discerning of collectors. But no. It's a rather common beetle in northeastern North America, where it feeds on plants in the Dogbane family Apocynaceae. I photographed this one a few years ago on a rainy summer day in upstate New York.
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon D60
ISO 100, f/13, 1/200 sec, flash diffused through tracing paper
awild | October 22, 2008
Adetomyrma sp. "mad-01", larvae and adults
Madagascar
With a name like "dracula ant" you'd think these waspy little Adetomyrma might suddenly lunge for your jugular. But they are shy creatures, drinking not the blood of hapless victims but sparingly from the hemolymph of their own larvae. It's an odd behavior, yet one that makes a certain amount of sense when considering the haphazard way that evolution works.
Here's the problem: ants have a skinny little waist through which their digestive tract must pass. Solid food would lodge in the bottleneck and kill the ant, so the ants can't eat…
awild | October 17, 2008
Cycloneda munda - Polished Lady Beetle
Champaign, Illinois
It's a depressing time to be a lady beetle aficionado in the midwest. Most of the beetles I've seen around town are pesty invasives like the multi-colored lady beetle (from Asia) and the seven-spotted lady beetle (from Europe). But one native species, Cycloneda munda, is hanging on, perhaps because it is smaller than the competition and able to subsist on smaller prey. A couple weeks ago I photographed this pair enjoying an intimate moment on the fall goldenrod.
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon 20D
ISO…
awild | October 14, 2008
Given the hypothermia I endured to shoot this Nothomyrmecia, I am pleased whenever I can put the photographs to work. Physical discomfort does pay off sometimes, although in hindsight it wasn't too bright of me to not have packed warm clothes for an ant that forages just above freezing. Here's a screen capture of the original RAW file, in series:
awild | October 12, 2008Here's a question for my myrmecologist readers. Has anyone published observations of ritualized fighting among colonies of Pogonomyrmex harvester ants? I know such behavior was famously studied by Bert Hoelldobler in Myrmecocystus, and that ritual combat has been noted in Camponotus and Iridomyrmex. The reason I ask is that the pogos in my front yard back in Tucson would engage in what looks like the same sort of behavior. Ants from opposing colonies stand up on little stilt-legs and push each other about without anyone getting hurt.
I suspect these non-lethal ways of establishing…
awild | October 10, 2008Languria sp. Lizard Beetle (Erotylidae), California
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon D60
ISO 100, f/13, 1/200 sec, flash diffused through tracing paper
awild | October 8, 2008Cataulacus brevisetosus - armored arboreal ant (Africa)
Cephalotes rohweri - armored arboreal ant (North America)
Tetraponera natalensis - elongate twig ant (Africa)
Pseudomyrmex pallidus - elongate twig ant (North America)
Plectroctena mandibularis - giant hunting ant (Africa)
Dinoponera australis - giant hunting ant (South America)
Dorylus helvolus - subterranean ant predator (Africa)
Neivamyrmex californicus - subterranean ant predator (North America)
awild | October 5, 2008Coccinella septempunctata
This weekend's project: to shoot a beetle in flight. I chose ladybirds not because they are pretty, but because they are the slowiest, clumsiest beetles I could find in any number.  An easy target.
I had a cast of several beetles from two species, the seven-spotted ladybird Coccinella septempunctata and the multi-colored ladybird Harmonia axyridis. I placed the beetles inside a whitebox with a backdrop of leaves, along with my Canon 550 speedlite flash, and tried to capture the beetles as they launched themselves into the air. The timing was tricky, as it…
awild | October 3, 2008
Megacyllene robiniae - Locust Borer
Champaign, Illinois
Goldenrod flowers are a magnet for late summer insects, and among the most spectacular attractions is the locust borer, a wasp-striped longhorn beetle. They gather on the flowers to mate and to feed on pollen.
Megacyllene larvae are pests of black locust trees. Their burrows in the wood damage trees directly, but more seriously, the wounds expose the tree to an even more damaging fungus. Pesty or no, they are charismatic insects and much more cooperative photographic subjects than the ants I usually shoot.
photo details (top 3…
awild | October 2, 2008
Prenolepis imparis - The Winter Ant
Champaign, Illinois
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon 20D
ISO 100, f/13, 1/250 sec, flash diffused through tracing paper
awild | October 1, 2008This morning I had to deny a scientist permission to use my photos of her ants in a paper headed for PLoS Biology. I hate doing that. Especially when I took those photos in part to help her to promote her research.
The problem is that PLoS content is managed under a Creative Commons (=CC) licensing scheme. I don't do CC. Overall it's not a bad licensing scheme, but for one sticking point: CC allows users to re-distribute an image to external parties.
In an ideal world, non-profit users would faithfully tack on the CC license and the attribution to the photographer, as required by the…
awild | September 30, 2008Phymata ambush bug - Champaign, Illinois
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon 20D
ISO 100, f/13, 1/250 sec, flash diffused through tracing paper
awild | September 29, 2008
Heterospilus sp., head & compound eye, Costa Rica
Here are some shots from my training session this morning at the Beckman Institute's Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). I haven't used SEM for years- wow! Great fun. Click on each image to enlarge.
Heterospilus sp. mesosoma
Heterospilus sp., ovipositor
For contrast, here's a photo of a wasp in the same genus taken with my standard Canon macro gear:
Heterospilus sp. Costa Rica, taken with a Canon 20D dSLR & macro lens
We'll be deciding over the coming months which type of images to use for our project. As you can see,…