We’re hosting a party for the roller derby girls, so I’m otherwise preoccupied today. Help yourself to some links, though:
- Mark Moffett, the quintessential National Geographic bug photographer, has a new ant book.
- Margaret Atwood (yes, that Margaret Atwood), reviews E. O. Wilson’s novel.
- Carl Zimmer suffers genome fatigue.
- Mantis shrimp glow in the dark.
- Who wants to help Tim Eisele identify his mystery ants?
Thanks for sending people over to have a look, so far I have two people who agree that they are probably Tetramorium (“pavement ants”).
You’ve got some bright commentators. Your ants are indeed the pavement ant Tetramorium “species E”. A team of European ant taxonomists is currently working out the species in this difficult complex of Eurasian ants. With any luck we’ll have a proper name for this species shortly.
Keep an eye out for the impressive battles staged by neighboring colonies as they expand their territories this spring. I had one on my front sidewalk a couple days ago.
Wilson’s book got a pretty good review. I’m tempted…
Anyone here read it yet?
[...] OK, the consensus (Thanks, Eric Price and Cupi, and Alex Wild concurs on his site), is that they are Pavement Ants, Tetramorium species-E. And yes, as I rather expected, they are a [...]