Ant ecologist extraordinaire Rob Dunn sends along the following request:
We are looking for live colonies of
- Aphaenogaster rudis
- Temnothorax curvispinosus or T. longispinosus
- Crematogaster lineolata
- Tapinoma sessile
from anywhere within their ranges. If you are potentially willing to contribute colonies we would be very grateful. Please contact Sarah Diamond (sediamon@unity.ncsu.edu) regarding details. If you are interested in more extensive collection of colonies, we may be able to reimburse your collection time. These collections will be used to try to understand variation across the geographic ranges of these species in thermal tolerance and other life history traits. We are also interested in how the cryptic species of the A. rudis complex differ in their traits associated with thermal tolerance (and will be DNA barcoding specimens) and so if you aren't sure which of the A. rudis complex species you have, feel free to just send it along and we will sort it out.
Very Sincerely,
Rob Dunn and Sarah Diamond
The Dunn lab is at the cutting edge of macroecology and produces some absolutely world-class ant science. If you have access to any of these common North American species, I encourage you to contact Sarah for details about how to collect and send the colonies.
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Define colony.
And define "ship across state lines." I'm sure there is a legal explanation to shipping these ants about but it might be best to mention that here.
These are some amazing pictures. What resolution I wonder do you use on a camera to get such amazing details of such tiny incredible creatures?
And as well as than you have made these photos?