Myrmecos

Stories of Ants

Posted by Alex Wild on October 28, 2009
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I’m busy today with lab work.  But if you need an ant blog fix, let me point you in the direction of “Historias de Hormigas” (“Stories of Ants”).  It’s a Spanish blog by José María Gómez Durán, and the current entry is an amazing series of action shots documenting an ant-hunting Crabronid wasp.

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Comments

  1. #1 Kai
    October 28, 2009

    I’ve heard of Braconid wasps but /never/ of Crabonids!

    ~Kai

  2. #2 myrmecos
    October 28, 2009

    Crabronidae = most of the former Sphecidae

    (Sphecidae in the old sense is paraphyletic wrt bees…)

  3. #3 James C. Trager
    October 29, 2009

    Amazing! Of all the ants on which to prey, the foul-tasting Tapinoma — Ptooey!

    Reminds me of another underutilized host or prey resource for a hymenopteran I learned about recently, Braconidae: Elasmosoma on Formica. http://bugguide.net/node/view/280158

    And isn’t there a group that uses Pogonomyrmex, also?

  4. #4 José María Gómez Durán
    October 29, 2009

    Not far from Tracheliodes I saw this insect hovering over a line of Lasius sp on a wall. It could stay completely still in the air for several minutes, at a distance less than 1 cm from the ants:

    http://picasaweb.google.es/josemarygd/ZoologyAlbum#5398104725677141538