Myrmecos

Friday Beetle Blogging: Martineziana Fire Ant Beetle

Posted by Alex Wild on November 28, 2008
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martineziana1

Martineziana dutertrei Fire Ant Beetle

Texas

Any insect that can fool an ant nest’s security system gains access to rich stores of food.  Martineziana scarab beetles are found only in colonies of Solenopsis fire ants where they feed on the ants and their brood.  This beetle was collected from a red imported fire ant mound at the Brackenridge Field Laboratory in Austin, Texas.

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

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Comments

  1. #1 Pepper Cloud
    November 28, 2008

    Hi Alex, May I use one of your ant photos to do a drawing from? I take a drawing class at the local community college and next week we are working on cross-contour drawings and I thought it would be fun to use an ant as the subject. All of your photographs have great lighting and interesting perspectives, so one of them might lend itself well to the project. No guarantees that I will do it any justice.

    PPC

  2. #2 myrmecos
    November 29, 2008

    Hello PPC! I’d be honored if you used my photo for your drawing. Let us know how it comes out!

    Alex