Sunday Night Movie: Army Ant Roll Call

(From BBC’s “Walk on the Wild Side“)

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Carl Rettenmeyer’s Photographs

I never met Carl Rettenmeyer.

I regret this.   Rettenmeyer forms a part of my heritage as an ant photographer.   As a kid, my first exposure to army ants came through Rettenmeyer’s stunning imagery in Ranger Rick magazine.  His photos adorn the pages of E. O. Wilson’s 1971 classic The Insect Societies as well as the later tome The Ants.   Before I ever picked up a camera, or even considered myrmecology as a career, Rettenmeyer’s ants were well seared into my memory.   They still simmer there, forming a mental backdrop for thoughts of army ants.

So as a tribute of sorts, I’ve collected a few of Rettenmeyer’s photographs from around the web:

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Army Ants of the North

Neivamyrmex nigrescens, Arizona

Army ants have a decidedly tropical reputation.  The term conjures spectacular images of swarms sweeping across remote Amazonian villages, devouring chickens, cows, and small children unlucky enough to find themselves in the path of the ants.  Of course, the habits of real army ants are not nearly so sensational, but they are at least as interesting.

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How should we talk about Army Ants?

Neivamyrmex army ants attacking a pavement ant, California

I see this morning that Daniel Kronauer has published a review of army ant biology in Myrmecological News.  The paper, among other topics, attempts to straighten out some key terminology:

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Shattuck revises the Australian Army Ants

Aenictus aratus - Queensland

In my utterly unbiased opinion, Australia hosts the most charismatic ant fauna of all the continents.  Except for their army ants, that is.  While South America is bursting at the seams with scores of Eciton, Labidus, and Neivamyrmex, and Africa has hoardes of Dorylus, Australia’s army ants are limited to a few small species of Aenictus, a genus that is likely a recent arrival, in a geological sense, from Asia.

In any case, Steve Shattuck continues his taxonomic march through the Australian ants, reviewing the Australian Aenictus in a paper appearing Friday in the journal Zootaxa.  Five of Australia’s eight species are endemic to the continent, and three of those are described as new.

Of all the army ants, Aenictus is the least understood.  This new revision puts the genus on solid footing, at least regionally, opening the door for much-needed studies on their ecology, behavior, and evolution.

source: Shattuck, S. O. 2008. Review of the ant genus Aenictus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Australia with notes on A. ceylonicus (Mayr). Zootaxa 1926: 1-19.

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