I’m going to have to make the Monday Mystery harder. Last night’s SEM image lasted all of 6 minutes before army ant expert Gordon Snelling picked the structure (the clypeus) and the family (Formicidae), and another two minutes before Brazilian myrmecologist Flávia Esteves nailed the genus (Cephalotes).
So, six points to Gordon, and four to Flavia.
The SEM depicts a major worker of a turtle ant, Cephalotes pusillus, a common tree-nesting insect in South America. Majors use those massive heads as doors to block the nest entrance, like so:
[thanks to BugScope for the image!]
Way too cool. I love SEMs. Thanks.
Yahooo, my firsts myrmecos points!! And thanks — like ABM, I really like SEM images.
Similarly, I was disappointed when Roberto Keller discontinued his excellent “Archetype” blog with its fabulous SEM images.
I have to blame my failure to organize my time efficiently. I don’t know how you manage to keep a consistent output of good posts, while doing all your research, photographic and other life activities!
I agree, it was sad to lost such interesting source about morphology.
read above: …to lose…
Have you considered hiding replies to the MNM for some amount of time (a few hours)? You could then award partial credit to those who weren’t first, but still got in before the discussion was disclosed.
How would people like me second guess themselves then?
why, embrace your inner Ophiocordyceps, of course !