illinois
awild | September 25, 2009Nicrophorus orbicollis, Sexton Beetle, Illinois
The intrepid students of IB 468 caught this beautiful black burying beetle during a field trip to Dixon Springs, Illinois. They were kind enough to let me photograph it before it went to the collection.
Rather than me blathering on about this insect's biology, I'll direct you instead to the N. orbicollis wikipedia page. Wikipedia is normally hit-or-miss with regard to insects, but the page for N. orbicollis is an example of the medium at its best.
One thing about carrion beetles, though. Pretty, yes. But they smell terrible, and I spent…
awild | September 21, 2009A student at the University of Illinois navigates an aphid swarm between classes.
We've had plenty of traffic here at the Myrmecos Blog as bewildered midwesterners look for answers about the swarm of tiny insects that has descended on our cities this week. As best as we can tell, here's the scoop.
Q: What are the annoying little bugs that are swarming Central Illinois this week?
A: They are soybean aphids (Aphis glycines). These small insects feed in summer on soybeans, overwinter as eggs on buckthorn (Rhamnus spp.), and feed in spring on Buckthorn before flying back to soy.
A soybean…
awild | June 22, 2009For those of you accessible to central Illinois, I will be hosting a free insect photography workshop next Sunday at the University of Illinois Pollinatarium. The workshop is offered in celebration of the 3rd annual National Pollinator Week. Details are as follows:
Insect Photography Workshop
Free to the public
2:00 pm, June 28th, 2009
at the University of Illinois Pollinatarium (map)
Bring your camera, as this is a participatory event!
awild | June 18, 20091. Temnothorax curvispinosus
2. Polyergus sp. nr. breviceps
3. Aphaenogaster tenneesseensis (queen)
4. Aphaenogaster fulva/rudis complex
5. Camponotus pennsylvanicus
6. Pyramica reflexa
awild | June 16, 2009As in the previous quiz, these ants are all found in Illinois:
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
Answers will be posted on Thursday.
awild | June 12, 2009
A Podabrus soldier beetle hides away in the leafy folds of an understory plant in an eastern deciduous forest. Soldier beetles (family Cantharidae) are predators of other arthropods.
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 50D
ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f13, flash diffused through tracing paper
awild | June 10, 2009For a change of pace around here. Â These were photographed last weekend in Brownfield Woods in Urbana, Illinois.
A micropezid fly guards a prime patch of bird poop
A scuttle fly (Phoridae) on a mushroom
Chrysopilus sp. (Rhagionidae)
Long-legged fly (Dolichopodidae)
If any of you Diptera-inclined folk can give me more specific identifications I'd really appreciate it.
awild | May 31, 2009The following ants are all found in my yard here in suburban Illinois. What are they?
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
I'll post answers on Tuesday. If you're lost, try here.
awild | May 19, 2009I took my shiny new Canon 50D out for a spin this weekend, and along the railroad tracks I found a worthy myrmecological subject: Crematogaster feeding at the swollen nectaries of an Ailanthus Tree of Heaven. Ailanthus is an introduced Asian tree that's gone weedy across much of North America. Our local ants don't seem to mind, though, it's extra snack food for them.
awild | May 7, 2009Mayapple
Brownfield woods, Urbana, Illinois
photo details: Canon 17-40x wide angle lens on a Canon EOS 50D
ISO 400, 1/30 sec, f/7.1, leaf backlit with handheld 550ex strobe.
awild | February 27, 2009
Just a reminder. The infamous annual Insect Fear Film Festival (this year's theme: centipedes!) is happening tomorrow night on campus here in Urbana-Champaign.
More information:
http://www.life.uiuc.edu/entomology/egsa/ifff.html
awild | February 3, 2009
Mark your calendar. The 26th annual Insect Fear Film Festival will be held February 28th at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This year's theme is "Centipede Cinema".
The film festival is legendary. I've heard about the event for years, and its lineup of bug flicks, live displays, and art contests have received widespread media coverage. Now that I live in Champaign I'll be able to attend my first one.
The announcement:
The Insect Fear Film Festival - scaring the general public with
horrific films and horrific filmmaking since 1984
The 26th…
awild | January 6, 2009Odontomachus meinerti trap-jaw ant, Argentina
One perk of being at a research university is the opportunity to shoot the various study organisms on campus. These subjects are interesting- they have to be, or they wouldn't be studied- and when the research goes public I get the chance to disseminate my photographs with the science media outlets that cover the story.
Among my favorite campus animals is the Odontomachus trap-jaw ant, one of the focal taxa in Andy Suarez's lab. The researchers are looking at the biomechanics of the jaw, one of the fastest recorded appendages among all…
awild | December 9, 2008I can't help but feel gleeful at this morning's news.  Back in January I had landed, I thought, a postdoctoral position at the Illinois Natural History Survey. It was a dream job. I've been itching for years to figure out what's really going on with the evolutionary history of Camponotus, a hugely important ant genus with a godawful mess of a taxonomy. The State of Illinois had finally provided the wherewithal, an independent postdoc to do research on a project of my choosing. That would be Camponotus.
So forgive me if I seem petty when I explain that's exactly when Mr. Blagojevich…
awild | October 2, 2008
Prenolepis imparis - The Winter Ant
Champaign, Illinois
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon 20D
ISO 100, f/13, 1/250 sec, flash diffused through tracing paper
awild | September 9, 2008All the better to steal your brood with, my little red riding ant...
Polyergus
Champaign, Illinois
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon D60
ISO 100, f/13, 1/200 sec, flash diffused through tracing paper
awild | August 15, 2008
Pelidnota punctata - Grapevine Beetle
Champaign, Illinois
Here it is: the first insect I've photographed since moving to Illinois last week. I've been posting a lot of scarab beetles recently, but can you blame me? They're so pretty.
photo details: Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens on a Canon 20D
ISO 100, f/11, 1/200 sec, indirect strobe in white box.
awild | August 10, 2008Our yard here in Champaign is about the size of a postage stamp, but it is in an older part of town and the ant fauna isnât half bad. In moving up from Tucson Iâve traded my desert harvester ants for a more midwestern fauna. Hereâs what I uncovered yesterday in a few minutes of looking around:
Camponotus pennsylvanicus
Camponotus nearcticus
Lasius neoniger
Formica pallidefulva group sp.
Paratrechina sp.
Tapinoma sessile
Myrmecina americana
Tetramorium âsp. Eâ
Ponera pennsylvanica
As a rule of thumb, older parts of town are better for ant diversity than newer developments. Iâve found this…
awild | July 26, 2008The more avid readers (that's you, mom!) may have noticed a lack of activity on the blog of late. Life has intruded. Next week I will be leaving my job at the University of Arizona and taking a new one in Illinois. This means tying up loose ends on the beetle project, saying goodbye to friends, and moving a house.  Full-on blogging will resume by mid-August, I presume, once the dust has settled.
There is much I will miss about Tucson, but on the other hand I'll be joining the Entomology Department at Champaign-Urbana, one of the world's finest centers of insect research.
zooillogix | December 18, 2007Olney, Illinois is famous for white squirrels. In 1943 there were 1000 of the little guys but by the '90s the population remained constant around 200. The town has implemented a rather strict set of laws to protect them. Dogs are not allowed to roam free anywhere in Olney and in 1997 cats were prohibited from roaming free as well. Running over an Olnean white squirrel, which has right of way on all streets, will get you a $200 fine.
Olney's white squirrel community is a true albino population, which has managed to support itself for over sixty years. According to the White Squirrel Institute…