Takashi Komatsu travelled to the Amazon earlier this year and did a phenomenal job capturing photographs of the rich entourage of arthropods that travels with army ants. For example:
A rove beetle roves in a column of Eciton burchellii army ants (Peru). Image: Takashi Komatsu.
Go see the rest of the series.
12 comments on Takashi Komatsu Photographs A Bestiary of Army Ant Associates
Nice! I remember finding some imposters with other Eciton species: http://www.flickr.com/photos/deadmike/2265279049/
Nice! That looks like one of the staphs that hangs out near the raid front. Do you recall where you were relative to the front?
All of those are really amazing!
These are great. I especially liked the scarab (I think) with the E. burchelli color pattern.
You’ve got some colleagues out there, Alex, and it’s quite nice that you share some of their work with us.
I only stop by the Japanese ant blogs every couple months, James. Probably not frequently enough, considering the pace of amazing natural history photography they produce.
That wingless fly (a phorid, I think?) is my favorite.
I’m most grateful to you for introduction of my blog! I like your beautiful ant’s photograph so much.
Glad you stopped by, Takashi, and thanks for sharing your photographs with the rest of us!
Takashi I too enjoyed your detailed photos and was wondering how you managed to get so close and capture the many tiny invertebrates .
Have you published any of your work?
I am postdoctoral fellow of Japanese university and studying interaction between ants and myrmecophilous insects. Although I remain unpublished, I will publish picture book of Japanese myrmecophilous organisms with my colleague in this summer.
Takashi will this upcoming publication be availible here in the U.S. and which university are you connected to?
It´s amazing picture and really big myrmecophilous rove beetle. Nic work Takashi!