Alex Wild
@alexwild
Entomologist and Photographer in Austin, Texas.
Dolichoderus bispinosus ants gather honeydew from aphids in a tropical garden. Minca, Colombia.
Her nest disturbed by the photographer, a Dolichoderus attelaboides worker stands guard. Morretes, Paraná, Brazil.
A punctate furrowed ant, Myrmica punctiventris, in the Smoky Mountains. This species has small colonies that distribute among acorns and hollow sticks on the forest floor.
My favorite myrmecological writer is Mark Deyrup, who reminds us even in his technical books that what we do is fun and we should talk about it like it is. (from The Ants of Florida)
On the other hand, Switzerland thinks highly enough of myrmecology that they put Auguste Forel and some ants he described on their 1000 franc note for a few decades.
Here's an ant from Argentina, the black garden leafcutter Acromyrmex lundii. When I was last in Argentina, working on ants, I people would volunteer their knowledge about the local ants. "Argentina has two kinds of ants," they invariably said. "The red stinging ones, and the black ones that...
This species- a Strumigenys silvestrii South American trap-jaw ant- was accidentally imported to North America where it is now widespread- though not particularly conspicuous- in warmer regions. Brackenridge Field Laboratory, Austin, Texas.
I probably deserved the stings for this one, as I removed the bark protecting their brood nest.
Last week in western New York, I had the pleasure (?) of encountering my first invasive population of Myrmica rubra, commonly called "European fire ants".
(A tragic addendum, the author’s son David was killed in action in Germany in 1945, after this book was written but before it was published)
Here is a citronella ant, one of the most aromatic of all insects. I really love these things. New photo from western New York.
I am not sure what to make of the underperformance of the screwworm fly lure traps, but they don't seem to be picking up anything. www.aphis.usda.gov/animals/anim...
A big-headed ant, Pheidole fimbriata, you’ll never guess why they call it that. (Colombia)
A new composite image of the major and minor workers of Pheidole dentata, a native big-headed ant that persists in Austin by staking out shadier habitats than the invasive fire ants.
The DHS freak-out response to this note underscores that regime members are extremely sensitive about their personal failings. They are stupid and hateful people, but they are just smart enough to know that about themselves, and it consumes them alive to be reminded of their own moral stench.
Public service announcement to all butterflies: the tree branches are not what they seem. Rest at your own risk.
This is Psalidomyrmex. It hunts earthworms. Which is a habit that probably merits weird mandibles. But I just learned they don't need to have slicing mandibles, just grabby ones, because earthworms drop their tails when attacked, so the ants just haul them off like they were harvesting fruit.