awild | December 8, 2009The Republican Party speaks:
GOP senators on Tuesday highlighted âpure wasteâ in the billions of stimulus funds spent this year, including money for fossil research in Argentina, puppet shows and to protect cruise ships from terrorist attacks...
What does the Republican Party consider wasteful? Science, apparently:
Half a million dollars went to Arizona State University to study the genetic makeup of ants to determine distinctive roles in ant colonies; $450,000 went to the University of Arizona to study the division of labor in ant colonies.
âI had no idea that so much expertise concerning…
awild | December 8, 2009
Formica integroides wood ants tending pine aphids (California, USA)
Photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS D60.
ISO 100, f/13, 1/200 sec, twin flash diffused through tracing paper
awild | December 7, 2009The annual Entomological Society of America meeting is next week (Dec 13-16) in Indianapolis. I'm giving two presentations- one on Pheidole and one on Heterospilus- that the sadistic conference organizers scheduled for the very last day when no one is around.  So if you are attending and happen to miss your flight out, consider heading back to the conference center to catch my talks.
The 2009 meeting will be a good one for we social insect people. I am especially looking forward to the Hoelldobler & Wilson symposium, but the rest of the program is packed with goodies.
Also. …
awild | December 5, 2009
Oddly enough, a photograph I took in 2007 has been chosen as one of Popular Science's 2009 "The Year's Most Amazing Scientific Images" (I'm #34 in the gallery). I guess that's because the image wasn't widely distributed until the NY Times picked it up earlier this year. Not that I'm complaining, of course.
My favorite image in Popular Science's lineup is this one, a spectacular confluence of lightning and volcanic eruption captured by Carlos Gutierrez. But there are plenty of other stunning images in the gallery. Go see.
awild | December 5, 2009
Pogonomyrmex micans, stack of 23 images using CombineZP. Click for large file.
I don't ordinarily do product endorsements on the blog, but here's one: the image-stacking software CombineZP. I recommend it for two reasons. First, CombineZP produces smoother, more artifact-free images than the very expensive competition. Second, CombineZP is freeware. Alan Hadley, a British arthropod enthusiast, wrote it in his spare time.
Good. And free. Not much to argue with there.
CombineZP and similar products are designed to counter a major challenge of macrophotography, the narrow depth of…
awild | December 4, 2009
Trox - Hide Beetle - Arizona, USA
Scarab's shrewd cousin,
Elytra warty like hide.
Must be Trogidae!
Photo details: Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D
ISO 100, f/16, 1/250 sec, indirect strobe in white box
awild | December 3, 2009Here's an issue that's been on my mind as I'm shuffling trees around from several concurrent phylogenetic projects.
The primary output from phylogenetics programs is tree diagrams depicting the relationships among organisms. Very clean, very crisp, very precise diagrams. Precision isn't in itself a problem, but for the human foible of mistaking precision for accuracy.
I'm not interested in a precise estimate of evolutionary history so much as a correct one. I'm reminded as much when I see my estimates change from one precise conclusion to another as I add more data from more species. …
awild | December 1, 2009Do any of you know what this little animal might be? I honestly have no idea, and rather than look it up I thought I'd crowd-source it to you folks first.
It was lurking on the underside of a leaf at the Archbold Biological Station in Florida along the shores of a sinkhole lake. This was back in June. It's about a centimeter long.
update: It's a hover fly larva. Ted MacRae picked it- thanks!
awild | December 1, 2009
Cephalotes grandinosus, an herbivorous ant
Why are there so many ants?
This is a more perplexing question than it may seem. At first glance ants are predators and scavengers. Yet predators should be few in number, balanced on a narrow trophic peak and depending on high prey biomass to exist. Why are terrestrial ecosystems dominated by these little hunters?
A landmark study several years ago by Dinah Davidson provided an answer: many ants are not predators at all. They're herbivores. Sure, they snack now and again on flesh. But ants get most of their energy from plants, either…
awild | November 30, 2009
Anochetus mayri
Anochetus mayri is an ant most North American myrmecologists will not have encountered in the field. This toothy exotic is a small brown insect, less than half a centimeter long, known in the United States only from scattered locations in suburban Florida. I photographed one this summer on a collecting trip to West Palm Beach.
Anochetus mayri illustrates a couple recurring themes in myrmecology.Â
First is just how inadequate our taxonomic understanding of ant species remains.  While identifying this ant in West Palm Beach is easy enough- A. mayri is the only…
awild | November 28, 2009November 2009 edition.
The fearsome mountain lion surveys his domain from the cliffs.
To the rafters!
Just try to come get me.
Charming at dinner parties.
Sitting on the favorite spot on the favorite rug.
awild | November 27, 2009Myrmecos Blog appeared online two years ago today.  While I'm obviously the guy writing most of the posts, the reason we're still on the air isn't me and my bloviating. It is all of you guys- the readers, the guest bloggers, the commentators. Without the life provided to the site by the many participants, I'd long since have lost the incentive to keep at it. So, a heartfelt thank you.
If I had to finger any one difference between blogging in 2007 and blogging in 2009, it is this. In 2007 blogs had already risen to mainstream acceptability, especially in the political, commercial, and…
awild | November 27, 2009
Notoxus desertus - Antlike Flower Beetle
Pyramid Lake, Nevada
This furry little beetle comes with its own sun visor, a horn-like structure that projects over the head from the pronotum. I photographed this Notoxus along the shores of Pyramid Lake where it was feeding on pollen.
Photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS D60
ISO 100, f/13, 1/250 sec, diffused twin flash
awild | November 26, 2009Now stop playing around on the internet and go spend some time with your friends and family.
awild | November 24, 2009
Belostoma sp. water bug, Illinois
I'm so used to taking photos of fast-moving ants and beetles that a sedentary insect comes as something of a relief. Instead, the challenge with this Belostoma giant water bug was lighting the shot.
Aquariums are prone to reflections and dust on the glass. I arranged a diffused flash above the tank, positioned behind the glass so as not to leave a reflection by illuminating the camera.
Photo details: Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens on a Canon EOS 50D
ISO 100, f/8.0, 1/200 sec, diffused overhead flash
awild | November 23, 2009Azteca instabilis, Guatemala
An urgent bleg to Myrmecos readers:
If you have recent collections of Azteca ants suitable for molecular work, and you can mail them out within the week, please consider sending me any samples you can spare. I'd be especially grateful for species like Azteca instabilis, A. trigona, or A. velox that do not live in Cecropia.
Why the rush? I am writing an NSF grant with a group of ecologists and plant systematists to look at evolutionary patterns in the famous Cecropia-Azteca ant-plant system. To make our case to NSF we need preliminary data as a proof of…
awild | November 22, 2009
Sericomyrmex ants in a laboratory fungus garden
The textbook version of the leafcutter ant and its fungus is a simple story: attine ants cultivate an edible fungus in their nests. They are obligate farmers, eating only the fungus, and the fungus is a specialized cultivar found only in ant nests.
It's a nice tale, but as researchers probe deeper they continually uncover just how complex the ant-fungus interaction is. For example, about a decade ago Cameron Currie discovered that ants employ bacterial antibiotics to keep the garden clean of diseases. Microbes, too, are integral to the…