This Taxonomy Fail you can buy from Amazon for only $1.39.
It’s not an army ant, of course. The eyes are far too large, and the antennae too thin and fragile. But what is it?
MYRMECOS
Little Things Matter
Little Things Matter
This Taxonomy Fail you can buy from Amazon for only $1.39.
It’s not an army ant, of course. The eyes are far too large, and the antennae too thin and fragile. But what is it?
It’s either a formicine or a dolichoderine. Either way, it’s a subfamily fail!
Formica perpilosa on a dandelion?
Sort of off topic, but I found issues with a similar children’s book at http://blog.wildaboutants.com/2010/10/25/ant-book-for-children-disappoints/
Josh and Julie were skirting around the correct ID.
It’s a formicine, the Old World arid land specialist genus, Cataglyphis. Unfortunately, there are numerous bicolored ones, and they’re not separable with the view provided on the book cover.
Why is it so hard for people to get the right ant to illustrate a point or a title?
Ahhh yes… maybe someday I’ll learn how to identify ants.
Why is accuracy and meticulous attention to detail generally difficult to find ? Because it requires a lot of extra work and thought !
Take Alex’s comment “buy from Amazon” for instance. Amazon actually is not selling this book at all. Rather several Euro Amazon associates have the book for sale.
All I can say is that entomologists seem to number a larger than normal percentage of people who enjoy attention to details, LOL.
BioBob,
Nothin’ going on for you today, eh?
LOL
just the usual bug hunting and niggling details.
Actually, Adrian Thysse posted a pretty nifty link with plenty “going on” Tachinid fly pix with “zoomify”:
http://www.uoguelph.ca/nadsfly/Tach/Tachgallery/Tachgalleryhom.htm
The orange mandibles are suggestive of Cataglyphis bicolor
For it and its relatives start with
http://antbase.org/ants/africa/cataglyphis/cataglyphis_bicolor/cataglyphis_bicolor.htm