Tandem running in Camponotus consobrinus - photo by Steve Shattuck
I discovered while googling about this morning that Australian ant guru Steve Shattuck has been uploading some very nice photos to flickr. Â With any luck we'll be seeing some of these in a new incarnation of the Australian Ants book.
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My profound apologies for the lack of blogitude here while I'm over at Photo Synthesis. Fortunately, the internet has other things in it:
Myrmician shares an action series of Australian Podomyrma taking apart a much larger Myrmecia.
Brian Valentine finds some British Myrmica with a serious mite…
This weekend, Arizona State University is hosting a slate of myrmecologists to brainstorm on ant genomes. I'd link to the meeting information, but apparently the gathering is so informal that they've not given the event a web page. In any case, the topic is this: in the age of (relatively)…
Biodiversity discovery continues apace. The past couple of weeks have seen not one, but TWO new myrmicine ant genera.
First, Shattuck described the Australian Austromorium:
Austromorium hetericki Shattuck 2009 - Australia
Then this morning, Fernández et al introduced a pretty little yellow ant…
Aenictus aratus - Queensland
In my utterly unbiased opinion, Australia hosts the most charismatic ant fauna of all the continents. Except for their army ants, that is. While South America is bursting at the seams with scores of Eciton, Labidus, and Neivamyrmex, and Africa has hoardes of…
Thanks for the kind words on my attempts at ant photos, I've been inspired by the Master! Yes, an updated edition of the Australian Ant Book is on the cards. All I need to do is finish revisions of Iridomyrmex, Discothyrea, Calyptomyrmex and Paratrechina (soon to be Nylanderia, watch this space) and then I'll have time to get stuck into it. With luck it'll be next year.
You're a busy fellow, Steve. For what it's worth, I completely support the resuscitation and upgrade of Nylanderia as you guys present it -- I'm happy to have my old decisions improved upon in the face of additional good evidence.
Good news about the update of the book, and I look forward to seeing it illustrated with lovely photos by you such as those we've seen here.