May « 2009 « Myrmecos Blog

Archive for May, 2009

A Quiz

Posted in Ants, illinois, Science, Taxonomy, tagged Ants, Photography on May 31, 2009 | 6 Comments »

The following ants are all found in my yard here in suburban Illinois. What are they? #1

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Sunday Night Movie: The Swedish Chef makes Turtle Soup

Posted in fun, tagged muppets, swedish chef on May 31, 2009 | Comments Off

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The Fall of Empire

Posted in fun, tagged Ants, star wars, storm troopers on May 30, 2009 | 4 Comments »

A photo from Flickr user Stéfan:

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Ants on display at the Smithsonian

Posted in Ants on May 29, 2009 | 2 Comments »

A new exhibit at the Smithsonian in Washington, D. C. opens this Saturday and runs through October. The displays will include a live leafcutter colony, photographs by Mark Moffett, and casts of real nests by Walter Tschinkel. Should be worth checking out if you’re in the area. Details here.

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Pheidole Friday Beetle Blogging

Posted in Ants, beetles, Blogging, tagged Insects, Nature, Photography on May 29, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Who says we can’t have both beetles and Pheidole on Friday? A South African Sap Beetle (Nitidulidae) reacts to a swarm of Pheidole megacephala by retracting its legs and antennae, leaving little exposed but smooth chitin. The ants have difficulty finding anything their mandibles can grab, even if they have the tank-like beetle surrounded. photo [...]

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New Ant Genera from Madagascar: Aptinoma & Ravavy

Posted in Ants, Science, Taxonomy, tagged aptinoma, madagascar, myrmecology on May 28, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Brian Fisher has a paper out in Zootaxa this week describing a pair of new ant genera from Madagascar. Aptinoma and Ravavy are small ants in the subfamily dolichoderinae related to Tapinoma and Technomyrmex. Apparently, the backstory on these new ants is that ongoing genetic research from the Ant Tree of Life project revealed some [...]

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Argentine Ants, Queen and Worker

Posted in Ants, Science, tagged Ants, Insects, Linepithema, myrmecology, Photography on May 28, 2009 | 1 Comment »

A queen and worker Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, pose for a photograph near Córdoba, Argentina. photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f13, flash diffused through tracing paper

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Ectatomma brunneum

Posted in Ants, tagged Ants, ectatomma, Insects, Photography on May 26, 2009 | Comments Off

photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f13, flash diffused through tracing paper

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Ants on the Internet

Posted in Ants, Blogging on May 25, 2009 | Comments Off

My apologies for the lack of posts. Life and work are conspiring this week to make blogging difficult. In the meantime, here’s what’s new in ants on the internet: Roberto Keller explains the clypeus. PLoS One reports that ant-dispersed plant lineages diversify more rapidly than ant-free relatives. FlickR user Rundstedt B. Rovillos posts a lovely [...]

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