Alex WildI took some bug photographs this year! Imagine that. But it was a good year. Mostly in Australia, Texas, and Puerto Rico.
It’s time for a thread of my favorites.
Osmia mason bee on a spring Nemophila flower, Texas.
Inside a plant stem nest of Linepithema iniquum ants, Puerto Rico.
Such a bizarre little fly! This is Stictomyia longicornis, which breeds in prickly pear cacti. Texas.
I wouldn’t say this was aesthetically a standout photo as such, but the insect- a katydid that mimics an ant- is so amazing that I’m including it anyway. Victoria, Australia.
Here’s an ant I’ve been meaning to photograph for years but didn’t have the chance until ant guy Steven Wang brought some by my office this fall.
The aptly-named Pheidole absurda, from Texas.
And these two American carpenter ants, Camponotus americanus, in Texas.
Elizabeth Alcinoe
Michael Gemar
Random Damage 🌻@alexwild that's quite a lot of head to move around. Pretty amazing
myrmepropagandistSo, I've been reading about these big head ants and it turns out there are... questions.
The assumption was that the ants with large heads would crack open seeds. A large head means more mandible muscle so these ants have a much stronger bite than their normal sized head sisters.
But you never see these ants doing that. And some ants just let large seeds germinate and then start eating them. The majors do nothing.
Could it just be about nest protection? Something else?
Sergio Henriques ©️ @futurebird @alexwild
It could just be about nest protection, like fighting, intimidation or proto-phragmosis; but it might also be about nest building or something else entirely (histology might reveal that the size difference is caused by glands rather than muscle) - we likely need to know a lot more about what specific behaviours they do, that smaller headed ants don't, to grasp this phenotype (pun intended).
It could just be about nest protection, like fighting, intimidation or proto-phragmosis; but it might also be about nest building or something else entirely (histology might reveal that the size difference is caused by glands rather than muscle) - we likely need to know a lot more about what specific behaviours they do, that smaller headed ants don't, to grasp this phenotype (pun intended).
@futurebird My wife Jo-anne has a paper on this very topic. There’s a lot we don’t know.
pheidole@alexwild This was one of the species that got me interested in polymorphic ants when I was in college. It was called Pheidole ridicula then, and the name kinda fit.
Ray N. Franklin 🇺🇸@alexwild The silver wire coiled around this katydid's thorax suggests magnetic induction armor. Or maybe this katydid just has style. 🎩 😜