Last night went out for a good bug ramble except I realized I forgot my light, so I went home and made do with my phone flash along the way. (OpenCamera has a torch flash mode where the flash is always on.)

- _Leptinotarsa_ potato beetles mating
- a huge _Clubiona_ leaf-curling sac spider eating a zebra jumping spider (_Salticus scenicus_)
- an ant war (_Tetramorium_?), this was only one of two large patches, with skirmishes up and down the sidewalk
- a *huge* sawfly larva? of some kind

#ArthroBeauty #bugstodon #spiders #insects #beetles #ants #sawflies #Araneae #Clubionidae #Salticidae #Coleoptera #Chrysomelidae #Hymenoptera #Formicidae #Symphyta

Thomas Shahan took a photo of a Crematogaster ant that everyone should go check out.
http://flic.kr/p/2sjQzQ2

#Ants #Insects #Flickr #Formicidae

#DailySpiderPic: found a couple of _Myrmarachne_ ant-mimic jumping spiders on the garden wall today! With their shape and coloration combined with fast staccato motion, if you're not looking closely it's easy to confuse them with their model, _Camponotus_ carpenter ants (pictured: a worker feeding on a bit of apple I gave them, also today).

#bugstodon #antstodon #arachnids #spiders #JumpingSpiders #insects #ants #mimicry #myrmecomorphy #Araneae #Salticidae #Hymenoptera #Formicidae #ArthroBeauty

Citrus snack time. These Ghost ants were doing something I've never seen before. This unknown citrus tree has several leaf buds just starting to elongate and they were clustering around these elongated bud tips. I don't know if they were actively chewing or just collecting phloem at damaged areas.

#Nature #Photography #Insects #Ants #Formicidae #Tapinoma #melanocephalum #Citrus #Macro #SriLanka

Forgive the subpar photos but I just saw an ant-mimic jumping spider (_Synageles_) investigating a crevice in a wrought-iron fence post. Antennae twitched within. The hole was already occupied by a carpenter ant (_Camponotus_ cf. _novaeboracensis_?) who did not buy the spider's disguise one bit. The last pic is the Synageles looking at me like "Did you just see that?!" It was too funny.

#DailySpiderPic #bugstodon #spiders #AntMimic #JumpingSpiders #mimicry #myrmecomorphy #ants #Araneae #Salticidae #Hymenoptera #Formicidae

Look at how much peony juice this little _Prenolepis imparis_ drank!

(I looked closely at the _Camponotus_ who have claimed the peony plant next to this one, but their abdomens don't seem to swell like _Prenolepis_' do. A little too closely, as one worker was so startled she fell off the flower and ran away.)

#bugstodon #insects #ants #Hymenoptera #Formicidae #bloomscrolling #ArthroBeauty

Another Ant Mimic Jumping Spider and another Asian Weaver Ant which it mimics. This is the female jumping spider. Under normal lighting, their color matches very closely too.

#Ants #Spiders #Insects #Mimicry #Nature #Photography #SriLanka #SalticidSunday #Salticidae #Formicidae

for @futurebird, some kind of _Camponotus_ alates are out

#bugstodon #ants #Hymenoptera #Formicidae

Okay, I put off watching the latest ZeFrank video because it seemed to be about honeybees, which are boring (sorry bee people), but it's actually an amazing journey through geometry, evo-devo, the other, cooler Hymenoptera such as wasps, solitary bees, and ants, the evolution of eusociality, "stigmergy" (a new one for me), and more!

https://youtu.be/_hw26yREe9w

#bugstodon #entomology #insects #bees #wasps #ants #EvolutionaryBiology #EvoBio #EvoDevo #Hymenoptera #Anthophila #Formicidae