Posted in Insects, Science, tagged Ants, biodiversity, E. O. Wilson, NOVA on May 14, 2008 | No Comments »
I’ve just received the following notice about an upcoming NOVA show on the life of biologist/myrmecologist E. O. Wilson:
NOVA is excited to partner with organizations that share our passion for scientific discovery as we spread the word about upcoming shows. On Tuesday, May 20, we invite you to join us for a look at the [...]
Posted in Ants, Insects, Science, Taxonomy, tagged biodiversity, entomology, fiji, Nature, new species, pheidole on May 13, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Pheidole pegasus Sarnat 2008
Fiji
Eli Sarnat, the reigning expert on the Ants of Fiji, has just published a lovely taxonomic revision of a group of Pheidole that occur on the islands. Pheidole are found in warmer regions worldwide, but Fiji has seen a remarkable radiation of species that share a bizarre set of spines on [...]
Posted in Insects, Science, Taxonomy, tagged hemiptera, Nature, scale, scale insects on April 30, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Crypticerya bursera Unruh 2008
Baja California
Cory Unruh describes a new species of scale insect in the genus Crypticerya in this week’s Zootaxa. The diagram above shows a highly stylized version of the back (at left) and underbelly (at right) of the insect, with peripheral illustrations of the various pores, appendages and hairs. Scale insects [...]
Posted in Ants, Insects, Photography, Science, Taxonomy, tagged entomology, snelling on April 25, 2008 | 1 Comment »
A few of the many species described by Roy Snelling:
Myrmecocystus tenuinodis Snelling 1976
Stenamma dyscheres Snelling 1973
Neivamyrmex wilsoni Snelling & Snelling 2007
Posted in Ants, Science, tagged myrmecology, snelling on April 23, 2008 | 9 Comments »
Yesterday I received the sad news that Roy Snelling, one of the most significant figures in modern myrmecology, has passed on. He was on an expedition in Kenya and apparently suffered a heart attack in his sleep.
Roy’s prolific career as a curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County produced dozens of [...]
Posted in Insects, Science, Taxonomy, tagged entomology, imaging, SEM on April 21, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Areolate
In 1979, Rick Harris wrote a definitive paper illustrating the various terms used by taxonomists to describe the intricate patterns on the insect exoskeleton. His guide is tremendously helpful to those of us who struggle to decide if those ridges on the head of an ant are strigate or costate. Via Sifolinia, I [...]
Posted in Insects, Photography, Science, tagged Mutillidae, Nature, pain, stinger, wasps on April 20, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Velvet ants- which aren’t really ants at all- are wingless wasps that parasitize ground-nesting bees. They are attractive insects, bearing bright colors and cute frizzy hair. But in case you are ever tempted to pick up one of those cuddly-looking little guys, let the photo above serve as a reminder about what lies [...]
Posted in Current Events, Science, tagged ben stein, Biology, Evolution, expelled, intelligent design on April 18, 2008 | 10 Comments »
Ben Stein’s propaganda flick Expelled comes out today. Since other people have hashed the film to death, I won’t write about Expelled except to make the following observation.
This is a graph showing the number of technical publications indexed in PubMed under the search terms “evolution” and “intelligent design”. I threw in a [...]
Posted in Science, Taxonomy on April 17, 2008 | No Comments »
Christopher Taylor gives an update on imminent closure of the Utrecht Herbarium, as well as further explanation why this is very, very bad.
Posted in Ants, Insects, Photography, Science, arizona, tagged behavior, ecology, national geographic on April 16, 2008 | 8 Comments »
Forelius maccooki (small ants) & Pogonomyrmex desertorum
Tucson, Arizona
In last August’s National Geographic, photographer Mark Moffett has a controversial photo essay depicting a large, motionless harvester ant being worked over by smaller Dorymyrmex workers. Moffett’s interpretation of the behavior is this:
While observing seed-harvester ants on the desert flats west of Portal, Arizona, I noticed workers [...]
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