awild | March 25, 2008
Mycocepurus smithi, in the fungus garden
An exciting week for ant aficionados! A new study by ant phylogenetics gurus Ted Schultz and Seán Brady provides the first detailed picture of attine evolution. These New World ants have long attracted the attention of biologists because they, like our own species, practice a well-developed form of agriculture. Instead of plants, these ants grow fungi, and their relationship is so specialized that the ants can consume nothing else. Schultz and Brady use data from four nuclear genes, the fossil record, and the biology of extant ants to infer an…
awild | March 24, 2008
Tribolium castaneum - Red Flour Beetle
The genome of the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum was published today in Nature. This latest insect genome is interesting not for what it says about beetles but for what it says about another model species, the venerable fruit fly. The more we learn about other insect genomes- the honeybee, the mosquito, and now the flour beetle- the more we see that the famed Drosophila fruit fly is an odd little beast. The bee and now the beetle, it turns out, are both rather normal. They share a lot of proteins with mammals, and fish, and other animals we…
awild | March 23, 2008
Rather than blather on about my Easter Sunday, I'll just share a few images from a morning hike in Tucson's Rincon mountains. Winter rains have given way to wildflowers, and in particular the Encelia brittlebush was spectacular.
Prickly pear:
A hoverfly guards his territory:
Pheidole worker ant gathering nectar from a barrel cactus:
Honeypot ants emerging from their nest:
Close-up of Aphaenogaster cockerelli, a common harvester ant:
awild | March 20, 2008
Chauliognathus lecontei - LeConte's Soldier Beetle
Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona
Soldier Beetles are named for their bright colors. Larvae are predaceous, but adults are commonly seen feeding from the nectar and pollen of flowers.
photo details: Canon 100m f2.8 macro lens on a Canon 20D
f/6.3, 1/250 sec, ISO 200
indirect strobe in white box
awild | March 19, 2008
In our front yard we've got a busy nest of Pogonomyrmex rugosus seed harvesting ants. Warming weather brought them out for the first time last week, and every now and again I go out to see what they're up to. Lots of digging, it seems.
Pogonomyrmex is greek for "Bearded Ant", named 150 years ago by Austrian myrmecologist Gustav Mayr for the thick brush of hairs on the underside of the head. Entomologists affectionately refer to these ubiquitous desert insects as "Pogos". What does the beard do?
It's a construction tool, and one that is especially helpful in dry, sandy climates. As anyone…
awild | March 16, 2008
Pheidole creightoni major worker, California
After reading a couple times through Corrie Moreau's hot-off-the-press Pheidole evolution paper, I am pleased to give it a thumbs-up. The paper is behind a subscription barrier, so I have distilled the results into an informal summary:
Pheidole is one of the most important groups of ants. They are distinctive in always having at least two sharply-defined types of worker ants in the nest: minor workers that just sort of look like normal little ants, and the very front-heavy major workers with an enormous head and powerful jaws. Pheidole is…
awild | March 16, 2008
Raindrops on Opuntia cactus
Tucson, Arizona
photo details:
Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens on a Canon 20D.
f/7, 1/100 sec, ISO 100
hand-held, natural light
contrast boosted in PS
awild | March 14, 2008
Hololepta Clown Beetle (Histeridae)
Arizona
If Oscars were awarded for Most Aesthetically Pleasing Sculpturing on an Insect, hister beetles would make the short list. Especially Hololepta, which not only shows the trademark histerid shininess but also has a flattened, paper-thin body. Michele Lanan, who collected this beetle for me, noted that it seems designed to inhabit the pages of a book.
In case it isn't obvious from those killer mandibles, Hololepta is predatory. This one was found in a rotting cactus in the Arizona desert, where it likely hunted fly larvae.
photo details: TOP…
awild | March 13, 2008
DEET is the main ingredient in most insect repellents. Slather it on and it's like magic; the mozzies just fly on by. Nothing else is as effective.
In spite of its utility, DEET is pretty nasty stuff. Depending on where you are in the world, you might be healthier just letting the bugs bite. It melts plastic, and I don't even want to think about what it does as it seeps into skin.
So, I was relieved this afternoon to read a report in this week's Science detailing the biochemical secrets behind DEET. Apparently, the chemical blocks an odor co-receptor called OR83b on insect antennae. When…
awild | March 11, 2008
Coprophanaeus caroliae Edmonds 2008
Dung Beetle - Bolivia
Source: Edmonds, W.D. 2008. A new species of Coprophanaeus Olsoufieff (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) from Bolivia. Zootaxa 1723: 42-46.
awild | March 11, 2008
Myrmecologist and artist Andrea Lucky sent me this picture, depicting her controversial view that Adam Ant was really a Myrmecia.
awild | March 9, 2008
Strumigenys louisianae stalking a springtail
Tucson, Arizona
Non-native species should make a naturalist's skin crawl, but these ornate little trap-jaw ants are a guilty pleasure. Strumigenys louisianae is among the most widespread of the miniature trap-jaw ants, occurring naturally from the southeastern U.S. to northern Argentina. The desert climate in Tucson is too dry for Strumigenys, but they persist in lawns, gardens, and other places in town where irrigation raises the moisture levels. No one knows when or how they arrived, but it is likely the founding colonies stowed away in…
awild | March 7, 2008
Apteroloma caraboides (Agyrtidae) - Snowfield Beetle
California
Why would I waste a prime Friday Beetle Blogging slot on such a drab little beetle? Because Apteroloma caraboides does something really cool. Really cold, even. This species inhabits the edges of high-altitude snowfields. They are found in places like these, in the high Sierra Nevada:
Snowfields are an inhospitable environment for an insect, but one that offers animals with good cold tolerance a unique way to make a living. Apteroloma caraboides cruise the easy pickings of less hardy creatures that fall onto the snow…
awild | March 6, 2008Here's a fun application that matches a journal to your research: Jane: the Journal/Author Name Estimator
To see what would happen, I fed a few of my research projects to Jane. Apparently I'm supposed to submit all my work to Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. In some sense that's reassuring. I just had a paper accepted there.
On closer inspection though, Jane does a terrible job of indexing taxonomy. Most of the prime journals where taxonomy is published- Zootaxa comes to mind- don't register. It is as if the entire discipline didn't exist.
awild | March 4, 2008but apparently the Myrmecos Blog is "excellent". Thanks Adrian!
On the off chance you actually came here looking for excellence, let me send you off in some more fruitful directions:
Drawing the MotMot
Stu Jenks
NCSU Insect Blog
awild | March 2, 2008
istockphoto lists their over-submitted subjects:
Your dog or cat
Flowers
Flags
Feet
Immediate environment - computer equipment
Light blurs
Brick Walls
Fire
Eyes
Symbols
Sunsets and clouds
Forests
Airplane wings
Your shadow
Backgrounds