Slow Blogging Ahead

For reasons that aren't clear to me, but are possibly related to the onset of summer bug season, traffic here at myrmecos blog has surged over the past few weeks.  We're now getting more daily visitors than do my galleries at myrmecos.net.

I'd like nothing more than to entertain all the new readers with thoughtful essays and astounding photographs.  But that's not going to happen.  Just the opposite, I'm afraid. The timing of this surge is terrible.

You see, we've just bought a house across town and are in the messy process of packing, paperwork, and moving.  The internet will be off for a few days.  And my hands will be full of furniture and cleaning products.

We've never owned a house before, so the move is exciting unto itself, but there's more reason than that to be happy about it.  The new place has an enormous garage with a separate room in back that's just about perfect for a studio. For the first time ever, I'll actually have a dedicated place for doing photography instead of sprawling inconveniently across the kitchen.  So if we can get past the blog interruption we'll all be better for it in the long run.

***update on the oddity***

Oh, and the mystery ant is an ergatoid male of Hypoponera opacior.  It hangs out in the nest robbing the cradle mating with female pupae.  An odd, incestuous little dude. 15 points to Josh King for getting the species. 15 to James Trager for explaining the sex, and five points to everyone who picked the genus correctly.  Don't spend them all in one place.