Nature
awild | March 4, 2010
Who's that odd ant out?
While in sunny Florida last summer (ah, sunshine! I vaguely remember what that looks like), I spent an hour peering into a nest of little Dorymyrmex elegans. These slender, graceful ants are among Florida's more charming insects.
Every few minutes, though, the flow of elegant orange insects out of the nest was interrupted by a darker, more robust ant: Dorymyrmex reginicula. Who was this interloper?
Dorymyrmex reginicula is a temporary social parasite. Mature colonies behave pretty much like normal ants. Workers guard the nest, forage for food, and tend the larvae.…
awild | March 2, 2010What was that bizarre balloon-spangled creature?
It's the larva of a Theope butterfly in the family Riodinidae. Here is the full photo, from Panama:
Theope, tended by Azteca velox
An infinite number of highly valuable Myrmecos Points(â¢) go to commentator JasonC, who not only identified the larva but researched the function of the balloons.
grrlscientist | March 1, 2010tags: Wailea, Maui, Hawaii, tsunami, nature, environment, image of the day
Image: Ron Barranco, Wailea, Maui, Hawaii [larger view]
One of my friends lived on Hawaii in 2008, where his uncle still resides. His uncle emailed two images to my friend the morning after the tsunami, which were snapped from his lanai. My friend shared these images with his friends, and he also gave me permission to share them here with all of you.
Image: Ron Barranco, Wailea, Maui, Hawaii [larger view]
awild | February 28, 2010A short clip from the BBC program "Ant Attack"
Driver ant males are astoundingly strange creatures. They are larger, more muscular, more exaggerated than most other male ants. The reason is likely linked to the behavior shown in the above video: males must first be accepted by a gauntlet of choosy workers.
A classic paper by Franks and Hoelldobler (1987) describes the theory. This preference of workers for bulkier males- and a corresponding slaughter of smaller or otherwise unsuitable ones- drives an evolutionary trajectory towards increasing monstrosity. It's an ant version of the peacock's…
grrlscientist | February 25, 2010tags: Postcarden, gift idea, plants, cute, streaming video
Aw, now this is a very cute gift idea for those people you know who either have everything or who want nothing, as well as for your co-workers and others whom you may not know well, but whom you wish to honor in some way: give them a postcard that turns into a living garden! All they have to do is add water!
Combining gift and greeting card, Postcarden is a fun and simple pop-out card that transforms into a mini living garden.
NOTE: I am not paid anything to show this to you (and I doubt the business will even know I linked this…
awild | February 22, 2010
Zootermopsis soldier termite, jaws at the ready.
If you think of termites as pasty white squishy things, here's one that'll jar your preconceptions. Zootermopsis dampwood termites of western North America have large soldiers- over a centimeter long- that are muscular and well armored.
Soldiers are deployed not against predators but against other termites, as colonies within a single rotting log fight when they encounter each other. Those jaws are ideal for slicing through an enemy queen, for example, or for protecting their own.
Photo details: Canon mp-e 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS…
awild | February 19, 2010
Ostoma pippingskoeldi, Sierra Nevada, California
If you peel back the bark of an old stump in the forests of western North America, there's a good chance you'll find some of these attractive tank-like insects. This is Ostoma pippingskoeldi, a predatory beetle in the family Trogossitidae. They lurk about under bark searching for soft-bodied prey, including the larvae of other beetles.
All legs and antennae tucked safely away.
Photo details (top): Canon mp-e 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS D60
ISO 100, f13, 1/200 sec, diffused flash
(bottom): Nikon coolpix 995, ambient light
grrlscientist | February 18, 2010tags: whale, humpback whale, seabirds, Whale Versus Bird, Vancouver Aquarium, British Columbia, education, streaming video
Imagine you're a bird, you're minding your own business, leading your flock, when out of nowhere -- Humpback Whale tail! Either the Humpback has a serious dislike for birds, or while feeding this coincidence occurred. This video was shot in Juan Perez Sound, British Columbia, within the boundaries of Gwaii Haanas National Park and Haida Heritage Site.
Hat tip to my spouse, Bob O'Hara, who is celebrating his birdday today. Be sure to give him the gift of a cheap thrill by…
awild | February 17, 2010
Timema sp. stick insect, California
I've created a new gallery to hold my photographs of stick insects. Check it out here:
Stick Insect Photos
awild | February 16, 2010I am impressed. Several of you* figured out the mystery behavior: reflex bleeding, a defensive response employed by some arthropods with especially nasty hemolymph to deter predators. A couple of you even pegged the identity of the mystery arthropod, a blister beetle in the genus Epicauta. Here's the uncropped photo:
An Epicauta blister beetle reflex bleeds when grasped with forceps.
Five points each to Tim, Ainsley, Neil, and Dave. And, ten points each to Pete and TGIQ.
So. Um. Don't spend them all in one place...
Posing on a mesquite flower.
*what's up with all the guessers-of-mysteries…
grrlscientist | February 15, 2010tags: Scientia Pro Publica, Science for the People, biology, evolution, medicine, earth science, behavioral ecology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, blog carnival
Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.
Welcome to the 21st edition of Scientia Pro Publica, the blog carnival devoted to nurturing and encouraging an online community of blog writers who communicate with the public about science, environment and medicine. Since it was the 201st anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, I think it is important to…
awild | February 15, 2010What's going on here?
Five points for naming the organism, and five points for the behavior.
awild | February 12, 2010
Tapinoma sessile, the odorous house ant, with larvae
Last summer I replaced the old covering on our porch roof. When I peeled back the rotting shingles, I was greeted by a frenzy of frenetic brown ants- thousands of them- running about every which way. Dozens of fat queens scurried for cover. It was an impressive display of formicid infestation, reminiscent of the swarms of invasive Argentine ants in California.
But these weren't exotic pests. This was a native species, Tapinoma sessile, whose pleasant blue-cheese odor lends it the name "odorous house ant".
Tapinoma sessile is found…
grrlscientist | February 9, 2010tags: x-ray art, photography, nature, Nick+Veasey, TEDTalks, streaming video
Nick Veasey shows outsized X-ray images that reveal the otherworldly inner workings of familiar objects -- from the geometry of a wildflower to the anatomy of a Boeing 747. Producing these photos is dangerous and painstaking, but the reward is a superpower: looking at what the human eye can't see.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al…
awild | February 9, 2010Meinertellidae! It's a jumping bristletail. In California these flightless insects are common around harvester ant nests. I don't think they have any sort of specialized relationship with ants, except perhaps finding the warm microclimate of the mound surface agreeable.
Wings are an ancient adaptation, and most of our modern flightless insects represent an evolutionary loss of function from their flighted forebears. Not so with jumping bristletails. This group diverged from the remaining insects prior to the advent of wings- their line of ancestry has been earthbound since the beginning.…
awild | February 8, 2010What's this charming creature?
Ten points for the first person to get the family name right, too.
awild | February 5, 2010
A male western hercules beetle, Arizona.
Meet Dynastes granti. This behemouth of an insect is North America's heaviest scarab beetle, found in the mountains of the American southwest where adults feed on the sap of ash trees. I photographed these spectacular insects a few years ago while living in Tucson.
The impressive pronotal horn on the beetle pictured above indicates a male; females are considerably more modest in their armaments:
Male and female hercules beetles
As is so often the case in animals, males use their horns to fight each other for access to females, attempting to pry…