The World’s Largest Ants…

…are queens in the African driver ant genus Dorylus, captured on video here:

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A wasp in intricate detail…

Heterospilus sp., head & compound eye, Costa Rica

Here are some shots from my training session this morning at the Beckman Institute‘s Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).  I haven’t used SEM for years- wow!  Great fun.  Click on each image to enlarge.

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How to Identify Queen Ants

Atta texana queen and worker

Ant queens are those individuals in a nest that lay the eggs.  They’re pretty important, of course, as without reproduction the colony dwindles and disappears.

Understandably, ant-keepers have an interest in making sure their pet colonies have queens.  Conversely, pest control folks trying to get rid of ant colonies need to be sure that they’ve eliminated queens.  Whether your interest is live ants or dead ants, I’ll give some pointers in this post for recognizing queens.

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