awild | February 29, 2008
Out today is a preprint version (subscription only) of Corrie Moreau's Pheidole phylogeny. At first glance this seems a nice piece of work: the evolutionary history of one of the world's most diverse ant genera inferred from 140 species and 5 genes.
This is some extremely cool ant evolution research, and the first salvo from the nascent Pheidole working group. Once I get a chance to digest all 50+ pages I'll post the highlights.
source: Moreau, C. S. 2008. Unraveling the Evolutionary History of the Hyperdiverse Ant Genus Pheidole (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and…
awild | February 29, 2008
Lycus net-winged beetles, Arizona
My latest beetle photos are now posted at myrmecos.net.
awild | February 28, 2008
Laccophilus pictus - Predaceous Diving Beetle
Arizona, USA
Here's one of my favorite Arizona insects. Laccophilus pictus is a small diving beetle, less than a centimeter long, that is common in small ponds and streams in the mountains south of Tucson. It's also one of the beetles that we're using as an exemplar taxon for the Beetle Tree of Life project. Very pretty, no?
photo details. Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon 20D
f/13, 1/250 sec, ISO 100
beetle in small aquarium
illuminated with MT-24-EX twin flash
awild | February 28, 2008
Ectatomma parasiticum Feitosa & Fresneau 2008
Mexico
In today's Zootaxa, Feitosa et al describe a workerless social parasite in the ant genus Ectatomma. Like many discoveries, this one was fortuitous. The authors were collecting nests of the common Ectatomma tuberculatum when they noticed that some nests had a number of rather small queens in them. Genetic tests revealed them to be distinct.
Ectatomma parasiticum is a social parasite, using the labor of the host ants to raise more parasites. Although a similarly parasitic lifestyle is known to occur in other ant subfamilies, this…
awild | February 28, 2008http://plazi.org/
Donat Agosti's group has launched Plazi, a set of tools that translates flat paper taxonomy into dynamic web content. This technology is significant: it means the content of old literature can be extracted automatically into databases. Taxonomic names are tracked and linked to external information, and collecting locations are linked to maps. This will be a valuable time-saver for taxonomic research.
As an example, my doctoral thesis was a fairly traditional piece of work: a book length taxonomic revision, all done in flat text on a word processor. Plazi has turned it…
awild | February 27, 2008
Meet Ectatomma tuberculatum. This tropical insect has the largest genome of 40 species of ants measured in a study by Neil Tsutsui et al in BioMed Central. Weighing in at 690 megabases, E. tuberculatum has nearly twice as much DNA as most other ant species, leading the authors to suggest that a whole genome duplication occurred somewhere in the line of Ectatommine ancestry.
Tsutsui et al's study, released today, is the first comprehensive genomic survey across ants. What's more, it is open access. You can read the whole thing here:
Evolution of Genome Size in Ants
Summary: Here, we…
awild | February 26, 2008For a devastatingly thorough critique, read Rod Page's first impressions of EoL:
The first release was always going to be a disappointment, especially given the hype. What frustrates me, however, is just how far the first release is from what it could have been. The real question is how much the issues I've raised are things which are easy to fix given time, or whether they reflect underlying problems with the way the project is conceived.
awild | February 25, 2008The imminent release of an embryonic Encyclopedia of Life (EoL) has journalists buzzing about an exciting new online resource. I wish I could share their enthusiasm.
EoL has announced 1.7 million species pages within a decade, providing biological information for all of the world's described species. That's a lofty goal, but their plan for getting the content for those pages goes something like this:
Let's build a snappy website, and then the site's awesomeness will spontaneously cause all the biologists in the world to shower us freely with their knowledge.
And maybe they'll buy us a pony…
awild | February 24, 2008
I've got a new series of Dinoponera photographs up at myrmecos.net. Click on the image above to see the gallery.
These giant black insects are the largest South American ants, and although there is at least one Asian Carpenter ant (Camponotus gigas) that's a bit bigger, Dinoponera weighs in as the world's largest stinging ant. They would seem to command a great deal of respect for such distinction, but in reality Dinoponera are rather shy animals.
Because these ants are so large- reaching over an inch long- they open up an array of photographic possibilities that can't easily be done with…
awild | February 22, 2008
The smallest insect I've ever photographed made the cover of the scientific journal Genetics this week. Encarsia pergandiella, an aphelinid wasp not even a millimeter long, was the subject of a study by Perlmann, Kelly, and Hunter documenting the reproductive consequences of infection by bacterial parasite.
The wasp lab is downstairs from ours, so it wasn't much trouble to schlep my equipment over for an afternoon session. The goal was to create a set of images to submit to the journal as potential covers, and I was more than happy to have the opportunity to shoot these charismatic little…
awild | February 22, 2008
Scaphinotus petersi - Snail-Eating Ground Beetle
Arizona
Ground beetles- the family Carabidae- are a spectacular evolutionary radiation of terrestrial predators. The elegant, flightless beetles of the genus Scaphinotus prefer snails and slugs.
photo details. TOP PHOTO. Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens on a Canon 20D
f/18, 1/250 sec, ISO 100
inside a white box studio, illuminated with indirect flash
BOTTOM PHOTO. Canon MPE-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon 20D
f/13, 1/250 sec, ISO 100
Twin Flash diffused through tracing paper.
awild | February 20, 2008I'm waiting for my PCR reagents to thaw, so in the meantime here are a few links for your perusal:
The folks at NCSU insect blog make fun of we ant peoples' curatorial habits.
Bug Girl takes on some anti-pheromone paranoia in California.
Carl Zimmer on the awesomeness of cephalopod camouflage.
awild | February 19, 2008Â
Does ant activity cycle by an internal clock, or is their activity cycle a response to changing environmental cues?
A study in Insectes Sociaux weighs in on the side of environment. Penick & Tschinkel experimented with applying light and heat from different directions and at different times of day to fire ant mounds. It turns out that the ants' daily rhythm of moving their brood around the nest is a result of temperature tracking. I've pasted a link to the article and the abstract below.
Penick & Tschinkel. 2008. Thermoregulatory brood transport in the fire ant, Solenopsis…
awild | February 18, 2008The rise of microstock photography has many established photographers wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth over how microstock companies are destroying the business.
What is microstock? It is a relatively new internet-based business model that licenses existing images for scandalously low prices. Traditionally, images are licensed through highly selective stock agencies for amounts in the hundreds of dollars or so, but microstock turns everything upside-down, moving images for just pennies each. Microstock companies aren't choosy about the images they peddle, as they need vast…
awild | February 15, 2008
Lutrochus arizonicus - Travertine Beetle
Arizona, USA
Here's an odd sort of beetle of whose existence I was entirely ignorant until a few showed up in our lab. My primary research these days is with the Beetle Tree of Life group, and the travertine beetle is just one of many Coleopteran wonders I've been introduced to over the past couple of years. This one is especially cute.
These little guys are aquatic, clinging to rocks in fast-moving streams. They're rather picky animals and not just any rocks will do. They need a particular kind of limestone called Travertine. The long tarsal…
awild | February 14, 2008The latest edition of the myrmecological newsletter is online here. It may well be the last, according to editor Gordon Snelling:
We have close to 200 members and I can count on two hands the people that have regularly supported Notes by sending in material for publication... I feel like I am banging my head on a wall at times and honestly I am losing the motivation to keep this going.
Notes from Underground has come and gone before. The printed newsletter was inaugurated in 1988 by Harvard…
awild | February 13, 2008
 Formica accreta, Northern California
I wish I could say I knew what these ants were doing. Hiding from the photographer, perhaps? Formica of the fusca species group are notoriously shy insects, but not all of these ones seemed to be equally spooked.
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon D60.
f/13, 1/200 sec, ISO 100
Twin flash diffused through tracing paper.
Levels adjusted in Photoshop.
awild | February 12, 2008Not the real thing of course, but look how cute the plush version is:
The company GiantMicrobes has a delightful line of plush plagues and pestilences. I've pasted a few more below, but you really should visit their site.
awild | February 12, 2008Today is Charles Darwin's 199th birthday. Aussie blogger John Wilkins provides an eloquent summation of Darwin's significance:
So remember Darwin not as the discoverer of anything, but as the guy who set off a fruitful, active, complex and ultimately explanatory research program in biology, which continues to become ever more active. Don't make him a saint, an authority, or a hero. He's just a damned good scientist.
Other Darwin miscellanea on the web: For the celebration-minded, Darwinday.org lists local Darwin-related events. The Beagle Project aims to recreate the Voyage of the Beagle, in…
awild | February 11, 2008
Ant Course 2008 is scheduled for Venezuela this August. The Ant Course, now in its 8th year, gives students an introduction to myrmecology with a decidedly taxonomic focus. More than just an academic exercise, the course serves as a meeting place where newcomers can mingle with an all-star cast of instructors, a superb social networking medium for aspiring ant scientists.
Admission to the Ant Course is competitive, with double the number of applicants than seats. I have been on the admissions committee in past years, and though I can't speak for this year's course I can share what the…