I am a photographer and research scientist specializing in insects, especially ants, but also beetles, bees, wasps, and various other arthropod curiosities. My scientific background is in systematics, a broad field that includes the discovery, description, and classification of life and the inference of evolutionary relationships.
The word Myrmecos derives from ancient Greek for “ant” and reflects my fascination with the earth’s most abundant social organisms. Myrmecos blog, online since 2007, is an exploration of these and other small animals.
Unless otherwise indicated, the photographs appearing on Myrmecos blog are my own, and they are available for commercial licensing. Educational and selected non-profit use is strongly encouraged and free of licensing fees. Please contact me (alwild [at] myrmecos.net) with questions about image permissions.
Selected photography credits:
New York Times
National Geographic
LiveScience
Scientific American
Popular Science
Ranger Rick
Smithsonian
A&E Television Networks
California Academy of Sciences (San Francisco)
Audubon Insectarium (New Orleans)
Uncle Milton Industries
Nature
Science
McGraw-Hill
Houghton-Mifflin
Selected technical publications:
- Wild, A. L., and I. Brake. 2009. Field observations on Milichia patrizii ant-mugging flies (Diptera: Milichiidae: Milichiinae) in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. African Invertebrates 50: 205–212.
- Wild, A. L. 2009. Evolution of the Neotropical Ant Genus Linepithema. Systematic Entomology 34:49-62. doi 10.1111/j.1365-3113.2008.00435.x
- Wild, A. L., and D. R. Maddison. 2008. Evaluating nuclear protein-coding genes for phylogenetic utility in the Coleoptera. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 48: 877-91.
- Wild, A. L. 2007. A Catalogue of the Ants of Paraguay (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Zootaxa 1622: 1–55.
- Wild, A. L. 2007. Taxonomic revision of the ant genus Linepithema (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). University of California Publications in Entomology 126.
- Wild, A. L., and F. Cuezzo. 2006. Rediscovery of a fossil dolichoderine ant lineage (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Dolichoderinae) and a description of a new genus from South America. Zootaxa 1142: 57-68.
- Wild, A. L. 2005. Taxonomic revision of the Pachycondyla apicalis species complex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Zootaxa 834: 1–25.
- Roura-Pascual, N, A. V. Suarez, C. Gomez, P. Pons, Y. Touyama, A. L. Wild, A. T. Peterson. 2004. Geographic potential of Argentine ants (Linepithema humile Mayr) in the face of global climate change. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 271:2527-2534.
Photo of Alex & Grasshopper by Saber Miresmailli
Myrmecos Blog 
Good day Alex!
I’ve discovered your website about a year ago and i’m checking it regurlarly…
Just wanted to say you’re making great pictures… thanks for that and all you’re explantions on this website!
I’m an ecologist working in New caledonia and i’m finding wonderful the fact that biologist like yourself, are kin in sharing their knowledge.
Cheers,
Manina.
dear alex
i am a photography student from england and was hoping you could help me with a project im doing. i am currently basing my a2 level project on insects and have to write biographies of photographers i think are relevent to this work. I was hoping of including you as part of my research but can’t find much background infomation about you e.g. date of birth where you grew up etc. I think your work is fantastic and would love to include examples of your work for my research. if you could send me a reply it would mean a lot to me thank you
from jake
Hello Jake- send me an email (alexwild -at- email.arizona.edu, but replace the “-at-” with @).
As an entomologist and photographer, I appreciate your beautiful macro images.
I just discovered your beautiful informative blog today (13 Sept 2008).
Thank you for sharing your observations.
k o m b i z z
Hello Alex,
I have been admiring and to a little extent harvesting your superb photos for some time.
As a quick question – how do you identify your species? Do you make use of my “Ants of Africa” website and, if so, have you encountered any problems, etc. I spend most of my otherwise “retired” time trying to add to and improve the website and any feedback will be very welcome. I am sorry my pictures don’t achieve the beauty of yours but I do try to make sure they are fit for purpose.
Regards,
Brian
Hi Brian. Thanks for your kind words.
I’ve been aware of your web page for a long while, but I’d not used it because I’ve not spent much time in Africa.
Wow, though. I can’t tell you how useful it has been with the material from my recent trip to KZN. Everything that has a name on it went through your keys to get there. You’ve assembled an amazing resource. I’ve been meaning to blog about it, perhaps I will soon.
You’re more than welcome to poach any of my images for your site, by the way.
I hate ants.
But I love your site!!
Thanks for dropping by my blog.
Thank you so much for the great information on your site! Your insights made all the difference in my first attempts at ant macro photography! (Especially the part about being able to tire them out so they’ll hold still.)
I am convinced that people will view ants, and other tiny creatures, much differently after seeing macro images like ours. When you can see a creature’s eyes, you know there’s a mind in there, and you may just find it impossible to callously step on a bug ever again.
Your work is inspiring! In case you’d like to see the results of your influence, here are the images I took on my first ant photographer foray. These images simply would not have been possible without your guidance.
These images represent some of my proudest moments in photography. Thanks again.
Thanks Scott! Your images look great- very crisp.
Hola Alex!
I really love your blog, your photography and all the fascinating information that you present. You successfully show the world how amazing and beautiful the insect world is. Imagaine how surprised and honored I was to come across your October 28th post… gosh. thanks!
Your fan,
PPC
I’ve just read about Marialis on Panda’s Thumb and have a question. If I interpret it correctly, your cladogram shows Martialis to be the sister group of all living ants. Since it was blind and many living genera are not, that presumably implies that vision evolved independently within modern ants. I would therefore expect there to be some significant differences between modern ant eyes and those of other hymenoptera.
I assume I’m missing something.
Thanks
Rob Clack
Hola Alex i have a Ant Farm and i was wondering if it had a queen because the ants were workin and making houses it was amusing ok heres my questions
1.Do i have a Queen
2.why r they going in and out tunnles so much its rapid
3.how can i tell if its a male or female
4.and if i dont have a queen how do i get one
5.why arent they eating?
ok thats all my questions now heres one more thing can u send me a picture of a adult fire ant queen ,a baby queen i want wingless and ones that have wings
thanks! your Biggest Fan Selena
Alex
It is just amazing the number of people interested in insects and taken pictures of them plus it makes very interesting reading.
Have you heard about this book?
http://www.bsls.ac.uk/?page_id=342
i work for a local pest control company here in del rio,texas. we have had three confirmed cases of rover ants in our area including one case being in our hospital. confirmations of the rover ants was given to us by mississippi state extension service.
After reading through your blog, I thought you might enjoy this website I stumbled upon the other day: glass insects
http://www.wesleyfleming.com/gallery/leafcutter-ant.htm
Recently, I found your fantastic site and I was absolutely stunned by the beauty of your ant photography! The fact that you also share your information as to how you photograph these tiny critters is also wonderfully gracious. I have begun helping David General and Lynne Thompson here in Arkansas with their newly instituted study of Arkansas ants. What fabulous creatures these are! Continued good luck to you with your fantastic photography and your ant research.
I live in Arkansas and enjoy ants. The internet has helped me greatly in ant identification.
I greatly enjoy my Atta septentrionalis and Labidus coecus. I hope that I have identified them properly. I enjoy watching them in my homemake formicariums with tubes for them to run in.
Do you keep ants or just identify them? I am curious. I don’t get a chance to meet or talk with anyone in the area that is interested in ants.
Thanks,
Mark
Hi,
I am interested in purchasing an affordable time-lapse video system for recording insect behavior (such as foraging, response to chemical exposure) during day and night. Anybody has recommendations?
Thanks.
Fantastic pictures! I came here hoping to find a decent picture of Rhytidoponera metallica as I was recently bitten by one of the little buggers in my front yard (I live in Brisbane, about 2kms away from where you photographed your specimen).
It’s been a few months since I was last bitten, but each time it astounds me how much pain such a tiny creature can inflict!
Out of curiosity, have you ever been stung by an ant? If so, does it make you want to squash them? It does to me… but it’s easy to forget just how complex and incredible these little guys are…
You are a biologist at the University of Illinois? Wow, I think I am going to U of I at Urbana Champaign for engineering in the coming fall. I hope I would meet you there.
Somehow I got obsessed with ants about a year ago. However, because of school and the cold winter, all I could do was reading and looking at pictures about ants online. I hople I could learn more from you.
Would you please email me if you have time, I have some questions about ants. Thanks!
Hi,
Could you please provide me some paper reference about bio-energetics of leaf-cutting ants of South America (Atta sexdense).
Thanks,
Amlan
dear alex,
I am a big fan of animals and i just wanted to know something about some animals like how do some animals make like six babbies all at once and we humans just make one babby at a time?
please write back me shaden
dear alex,
I am a big fan of animals and i just wanted to know something about some animals like how do some animals make like six babbies all at once and we humans just make one babby at a time?
please write back me shaden
bye please write back!
Excellent work.
Hey, Alex, I love seeing your photography. I’m a fan of E. O. Wilson and in some of his books I saw very amazing ant photography.
I don’t undertand why the ScienceBlogs overlords shunted you off; you were presenting some great photos and commentary!
Anyway, keep up the good work!
Thanks Larry. Photo Synthesis was envisioned as a rotating blog when it was created, and I served the regularly allotted time.
I’m glad it was only a month, too, because I burned through 2 years of my best material in 4 weeks and there’s no way I’d be able to maintain that level of quality over a longer period. I’d be down to poorly-exposed photos of lint, or something, after a couple months.
All the same, they didn’t really “shunt” me off- I’ve got a standing invite to move Myrmecos over to the SB network. At some point I may take them up on it.
well, I just have to say “Hello”, because I clicked on the taxonomy tag inside my dashboard and I landed on your post regarding the bumble/honey bee debacle. Lo-and-behold, you are in Urbana, my hometown…. born and raised. (now live in the hot sweaty south, though being near the coast gives ample opportunity for finding wildlife that I didn’t get to experience in Busey Woods)…. I am a little science wanna-be, studying pre-med/bio… recently discovered the excitement of hunting snapshots outdoors, now that I’ve been spending hours pouring over my bio text and lab.
i will definitely be returning to your site!
Hello Alex,
I’m a student from Brazil, at Unesp University, I am a big fan of ants, especially in regard to social organization, behavior and ecology. Your photos are really impressive and my favorite, no doubt, is that of army ants (the great Eciton burchelli!)
I wonder if you could send me information about ants and researchers in the area of Myrmecology, or even information on internships.
Forgive my English. And, of course, sincere congratulations on your wonderful work!
Big hugs, Rodolfo Probst
Hello Alex,
I think we met quickly in 2007 at the Ant course in Portal, AZ. And I’ve beeing using your awsome pics for my seminars since then…
Some collegue told me recently that you were blogging, I think I’ll follow it closely, it’s good to stay in contact with some ant mafia people… And just so you know my support, I think blogging about research is just another way to conduct those so important hallway or coffee discussions without paying for a plane ticket – good for the environment.
Keep up good work and good pictures,
MJ
hola mi nombre es wilson hernandez soy es tudiante de biologia hace 4 años estudio las hormigas de colombia yo contruyo hormigueros artificiales para hormigas pero tengo un problema grave i es la calidad de mi fotografia tengo una camara y esta camara pues no es muy buena es una cannon a 550 o mas bien no esta diseñada para tomar estas fotografias e ahorrado un dinero es mas bien poco muy poco quisiera que me aconsejaras alguna camara economica que me sirva paraa tomar buenas fotos.
muchas muchas gracias y exelentes fotos muy buenas son realmente impresionantes
Dear Alex,
Your photos are amazing. Could you help me ID an ant I shot in the Tucson, AZ? I have tried and tried to ID this ant and hope you can help! http://www.rhondaspencer.com/index.php?showimage=60
Your photography is an inspiration!
Thank you for sharing it with us!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/06/2648106.htm
Alex,
Mb’echepa – I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Canindeju in 1998-2001 and just wanted to say hello. I believe you were the apiculturist in Once de Septembre? I was in Villa Ygatimi. I now work for the Wisconsin Dept. of Ag and noticed your photos in our Pest Bulletin and thought I would say hello.
Jajotopata – Anna
Cool site, love the info.
Alex:
Just discovered this site. It is very nice. I have listed your link on a website I am developing at http://www.lifeatdrtoms.com, but you might check out my light-hearted blog listed in box above.
Tom Gavin
while i was searching something about wildlife, i found ur blog, i like it
thnaks
Wasn’t sure where else to put this.
I have been getting the skeleton from a dead bird with the help of Australian green tree ants and they have been doing something very peculiar to me. The bird, which is in a container, is often suspended from the top by the ants. I wrote a blog post which includes some photos of it. I was curious if you could help me understanfd why they are doing this?
The blog post: http://platynotan.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/the-chronicles-of-the-deceased-bee-eater/
Thank you.
Stephen
These macros are fantastic! What camera and lens do you use? Is there any photoshopping to splice images together? Thanks!
very inspiring blog!
Alex, thank you very much for sharing all this wonderful entomological information and beautiful pictures.
I was always fascinated with insects, got to meet with gentleman named Dr. Frank King back in the early 70’s in Gainesville Florida – he had made large scale models of fire ants, I wish I had pursued insects now… even more.
Great stuff, you are going to kill a bunch of my time here.
Thanks again!
Chris
Hi Alex,
just discovered your blog via Boing Boing and having lots of fun going through all your beautiful photos!
Thought you’d get a kick out of these:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisawoodcuriosities/sets/72157622843455524/
thanks and will be checking in regularly!
Lisa
Dr. Wild-
Several questions
1) I uncovered a small colony of the large ant in sandy soil under a pile of crushed rock (driveway type). I placed maybe two spoonfuls of dirt in a cup and upon examination discovered that there were two species living together (my assumption). If not together, they live within a quarter teaspoon of each other.
2) Any suggestions on simple references for some basic ant identification? I live in Gila, New Mexico.
3) Any suggestions where I can purchase a better mm ruler for scales purposes?
The blog is usually interesting.
Dick Nelson
hello, I am a student at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse and am
currently making an informational website about mayflies. I am emailing you
to ask permission to use your insect phylogeny image on my webpage which will
be viewable to the public. The image will be referenced back to your
webpage and will remain online as a part of a larger project: multiple
organisms.net
I would appreciate it thanks
kalmuck.tyle@students.uwlax.edu
Hi Alex,
I was less enthusiasm for macro photography even when i own 100 L macro. After read so much about Mpe-65, i start to love macro and the difficulty on that lens. Hope i can get one very soon and make lots of photo. Thanks
Regards,
Tonny
dear alex,I fotografed one ant in my country (Portugal) in dunes (coast).I do not know if they are Linepithema humile or whether other species. can you help me.
tell me how can I send you the photos of this ant. my mail is yurnatur@sapo.pt
Regards
Hi Alex,
I am enjoying thoroughly your Mymecos Blog and am learning tons about macro photography.
On the old blog at mymecos.wordpress.com I watched with much interest the video clip by Attenborough in Planet Earth where he featured the Cordyceps killer fungus.
I’m puzzled by a bug I shot recently which looks rather odd with something projecting from its back and wonder if it could be a killer fungus. The image is at: http://www.pbase.com/skhin/image/143573254.
Regards,
John
I am really grateful to the owner of this site who has shared this wonderful
article at here.
Please give me more details as to how exactly this works and if there are any costs involved. Please don’t have anyone call me, just send me an email reply. Thank you. Sarah.
http://myrmecos.net is gone? 😦