An intimate moment between a Cephalotes pusillus turtle ant worker and soldier as the sisters pass a bit of liquid food between them. (Minas Gerais)
While travelling through southern Brazil in May and June I took 5,164 exposures. After selecting the best, I uploaded 157 to my galleries.
That’s a 3% keep rate. I did about the same in Australia in December, netting 300 from 10,000 captures. For every one photograph in my galleries, then, more than 30 end in the bin. I’m not sure this is good or bad; it just is. Half the rejects are for obvious focus or exposure problems, the others don’t make the cut for a variety of other reasons.
Anyway. Have a look at the new material:
May-June 2012: The Brazil Photographs
(or, view as a slideshow)
After a heavy rain, a Synoeca cyanea worker empties extra water from the colony's nest. (Paraná)
A Camponotus melanoticus worker carries a bit of soil from an excavation deep in her nest. (Minas Gerais)
I’ll be singling out some of the more interesting natural history stories for blog entries in the coming weeks.
11 comments on The Brazil Photographs
Lovely.
That Synoeca is to die for! Awesome work! How low was the nest?
Ah! I see now the context of the nest. Really great work! Did you hear them make any noise at your approach?
Beautiful! Can’t imagine the work that went into taking all these. It is much appreciated, thank you.
(As a side note, I noticed two small errors:
115 of 149: Says ‘small’ where it should say ‘smaller’.
73 of 149: Misses the word ‘on’ in between ‘focused’ and ‘the’.)
Thanks for the corrections, Bauke. Should be fixed now.
I’ve been wanting to ask you this for a while, and watching the slide show spurred my memory: Have you considerdd using a light gray or tan background rather than white. The white seems a bit stark to me, but I’m eager to read why you prefer it?
In any case, a lovely set of images!
Did marimbonda tatu (armadillo wasp) come up as a vernacular name for the Synoeca? This is what my field assistant in Mato Grosso called them, when I was there (quite) a few years ago.
In French Guiana they call them “Mouche Tatou”, also after armadillos. Some of the Parachartergus also get that name.
Some people call them cabatatu, although marimbondo-tatu or vespa-tatu are also common.
A bit disappointed Alex No photos of Mrs M at work
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