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Ant-hunting from low earth orbit

By sb admin on April 10, 2009.
i-ec98dd5849d9d75572dc3b61b43197b9-termitariusmap1.jpg

A screen capture in Google Earth reveals a pattern of pasture freckles in Entre Rios, Argentina.

How about a closer look? I drove past the site last week, and the landscape at ground level sports an array of domed mounds, each about half a meter in height:

i-62bc959800394b9e51933f9e88d55a58-termitarius1.jpg

And the little engineer behind the mounds?

i-4f4f405f8852c49563b7daa164b2dcad-termitarius2.jpg

Camponotus termitarius, the tacurú ant. This perky Argentinian native (often misidentified as C. punctulatus) frequently invades land degraded by agriculture and is an excellent example of how human land-use changes can convert an innocuous local species into a pest. In this case, the problem is large enough to be tracked from orbit.

Tacurú ants aren't the first insects I've found in Google Earth. Entomology via satellite/aerial photo is something of a hobby of mine (see here, for instance). The next challenge: Australia's magnificent magnetic termites. I've not had any luck with these yet, but if any of you happen to find a spot in Google Earth where they're visible, post the coordinates in the comments.

Photo details (landscape shot): Canon 17-40mm wide angle lens on a Canon EOS 20D, with a polarizing filter and a hard-stop gradient filter. ISO 100, f9.0, 1/60 sec.


Photo details (ant): Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D. ISO 100, f/13, 1/250 sec, twin flash diffused through tracing paper.
Tags
Photography
ants
Google Earth
Myrmecology
Photography

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I have never heard of insect hunting via Google Earth before. Color me impressed. :)

And welcome to Scienceblogs!

hey Alex

Magnetic mounds I know of don't show up on Google Earth - resolution not fine enough...but i do know that Messor capensis nests show up nicely. Check out the landscape around Oudtshoorn, South Africa (e.g. 33° 36â57.32âS, 22° 08â06.38âE)

cheers!

In central Brazil those would be Cornitermes cumulans.

Magnetic mounds I know of don't show up on Google Earth - resolution not fine enough...but i do know that Messor capensis nests show up nicely. Check out the landscape around Oudtshoorn, South Africa (e.g. 33° 36â57.32âS, 22° 08â06.38âE)

cheers!

thanks...

I've been trying to figure out what these spots all around Nairobi are:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Nairobi,+Kenya&hl=en&ll=-1.090628,37.14…

And (zoomed out to give some idea of just how pervasive they are):

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Nairobi,+Kenya&hl=en&ll=-1.174854,37.16…

Ant colonies are the best theory I can come up with, but these things are MASSIVE and my Google-fu hasn't turned up any evidence of them. The Messor capensis above look fairly similar, but these Nairobi things are larger and more distinct. Anybody know for certain what they are?