awild | April 11, 2008One of the most important collections of South American plants is being shut down. The Utrecht Herbarium in the Netherlands houses nearly 1 million specimens and 10,000 types. When the museum closes we will lose a wealth of knowledge about the flora of a diverse and endangered part of the world.
Read More and Sign the Petition.
Why does this closure bother me?
Public support for biological research is the reason why that field guide on your shelf costs $15.00, instead of the $100 or so you'd be paying if you had to foot the bill for all the research that book is based upon. Our knowledge…
awild | April 11, 2008
Temnoscheila Bark-Gnawing Beetle, Arizona
Trogossitidae
This colorful insect arrived to a blacklight in my backyard a couple of years back, right when I first moved to Tucson. Previously I'd encountered Temnoscheila only under the bark of dead trees, where they apparently prey on the larvae of other beetles. I've always wondered why a beetle that spends most of its time secluded in the dark would need such a brilliant metallic sheen, if the color serves a purpose or is just a spandrel. In any case, this beetle ended up donating its body to science. It is one of several representative…
awild | April 10, 2008Not much posting this week. I've been busy getting genetic data from a new batch of specimens for the Beetle Tree of Life project, a process that's always slower than I expect.
Fortunately it turns out that the internet has sites other than mine, and some of those even have interesting things to read and pretty pictures to look at. Here's what I recommend:
Christopher Taylor discusses the follicle mites that live in your skin.
Ajay Narendra has added some new Meranoplus photos to his ant gallery.
Aydin Ãrstan writes that the Nautilus is still evolving.
Mike Kaspari asks about books that…
awild | April 7, 2008
Deserts are difficult places to live for more reasons than just drought and heat. During dry seasons deserts are relatively inactive, and there's not much around for animals to eat. To survive times of dearth, several lineages of desert ants have taken to harvesting plant seeds in the brief periods of bounty that follow rains. If stored properly, grains keep for years and can provide the colony with ample resources during times when the deserts are dry.
This past week the stubby carpet of spring grasses in our normally barren back yard started going to seed. After months of dormancy,…
awild | April 6, 2008
How does a newly speciating ant prevent backcrossing with its parental species? A new study in the journal Evolution by Schwander et al. investigates four hypotheses using the Pogonomyrmex rugosus/barbatus hybrid speciation system, finding support for three of them. Apparently the daughter species maintains its genetic distinctness from a parent species by mating at a different time, mating preferentially with its own species, and by having a much lowered ability to produce viable offspring.
In my opinion, the story of these hybrid harvester ant species is among the most interesting pieces…
awild | April 4, 2008Check out Khaleph's pictures of a Lasius queen killed by a Tachinid fly parasitoid.
awild | April 4, 2008
Epicauta pardalis - spotted blister beetle
Tucson, Arizona
Here's a beetle so toxic it can kill a horse. The horse doesn't even need to ingest the beetle, it just needs to ingest something that the beetle bled on. Blister beetles produce the defensive compound cantharadin- the active ingredient of the aphrodesiac Spanish Fly- which they reflex-bleed out their joints when threatened:
photo details (top) Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens on a Canon 20D
f/13, 1/250 sec, ISO 100, indirect strobe in white box.
(bottom) Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon 20D
f/13, 1/250 sec, ISO 100, flash…
awild | April 3, 2008Back in 2002 when I used the Nikon Coolpix 995 for everything, I would occasionally play around with the camera's very basic video mode. The 995 made small, grainy movies without sound, and most of the videos I took are, well, pretty bad. But the camera had impressive macro abilities, which meant it could shoot ants close-in. Here's a movie of a Dinoponera from the Mbaracayú Forest Reserve in Paraguay:
awild | April 2, 2008
Acromyrmex versicolor - the desert leafcutter
Here's the original:
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon 20D
f/13, 1/250 sec, ISO 100
MT24-EX twin flash diffused through tracing paper
Photoshop modification (top photo): desaturated yellows
increased contrast, burned edges, and added noise
awild | April 1, 2008
If you watch this video about a new technology for visualizing insect fossils hidden in opaque amber, pay special attention around 0:36-0:44. There's a brief 3D image of what is clearly a well-preserved sphecomyrmine ant. The clip is excerpted from a detailed demonstration here, showing the insect in all its glory (warning: 57MB!). It's among the most detailed glimpses of a Sphecomyrmine yet.
Why is this ant interesting? Sphecomyrminae is in many respects a classic piece of evidence for the wasp ancestry of ants. It is an extinct Cretaceous subfamily that shows a few characteristics of…
awild | April 1, 2008
If you've been paying attention to cinematography or photography the last few years, you'll undoubtedly have noticed the popularity of a particular grainy, desaturated, slightly surrealistic style. This look was popularized in films like 300 and Saving Private Ryan, and has become commonplace in glamour photography and advertisements for everything from perfume to shoes.
Inexplicably, this high-fashion style has yet to penetrate the ever trendy world of Ant Photography. So last night I conducted some ground-breaking photoshop experimentation and created the above image. I'm pleased with…
awild | March 31, 2008via Google Trends. Blue is ants, red is beetles:
Ants win, even in the face of the beetles' 20-fold species advantage.
That seasonal pattern is striking, no?
awild | March 30, 2008
If you've ever spent time photographing ants the above shot will look familiar: off-frame and out of focus. Because ants are small and speedy, they are among the most difficult insects to photograph. Just capturing an active ant somewhere in the frame can be regarded as an achievement, never mind the more aesthetic concerns of lighting and composition. Yet ants are dominant insects nearly everywhere, and photographers who neglect them are missing out on one of our most important animals. Figuring out how to photograph these tricky insects is well worth the effort. If you can shoot ants,…
awild | March 29, 2008Last year I mentioned the antics of Mr. Dewanand Makhan, an amateur taxonomist whose enthusiasm for publication rather outstrips any penchant for quality control. This week a team of myrmecologists has stepped in to reverse some of Makhan's errors:
All that [Makhan] has done is sample some of Surinameâs common species of Dacetini, and one common species of Basicerotini, and describe them all as new, without checking if any of them already had identities. His motives for writing this paper cannot be imagined and the total lack of investigation of previous endeavour defies understanding.…
awild | March 28, 2008
Rhipicera femorata
Victoria, AustraliaÂ
Here's an insect with exceptional reception: Rhipicera, an Australian Dascilloid beetle. Little is known about the biology of this species, but its North American cousins in the genus Sandalus are Cicada parasites- and there are certainly plenty of Cicadas down under.
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon D60
f/13, 1/200 sec, ISO 100
MT24-EX twin flash diffused through tracing paper
awild | March 27, 2008Jo-anne's father Keith sends these lovely photos of a swamp wallaby that frequently visits their house outside Melbourne:
awild | March 26, 2008
The famous Cambrian Explosion- a rapid diversification of animal groups about 550 million years ago- assumes a rather diminished significance when mapped to the full Tree of Life.
update: yes, I made the diagram myself, by modifying this.
awild | March 26, 2008This may come as a shock to my regular readers, but I agree with Afarensis that Arthropoda is clearly the best animal phylum.