I needed an excuse to post this Pseudomyrmex photograph in our new extravagantly wide format, so I figured a random ant link roundup would do:
- Brazilians pioneer Ant Beer (in Portuguese)
- Your ant questions, answered. To the sonorous pickings of a banjo.
- Ant Man, the movie, is due out in Summer 2015
- Antyscience: a new blog about ant science
- This is what happens when people with design sense make myrmecology gear (bonus: 3D printed ant maze)
- Nikola Rahme’s focus-stack of Camponotus truncatus is spectacular.
- A social parasite can also be a colony defense mutualist (plus, the original paper)
- Leptanilla is a bizarre, nearly microscopic predatory ant. And José María Gómez Durán has a video.
- Why the long face?
Did I miss anything?
Thanks, Alex, for showing my little video of a Leptanilla worker. A year ago I could also film at Madrid the flight of a Leptanilla male in slow motion (600 fps): http://www.historiasdehormigas.blogspot.com.es/2012/10/el-vuelo-de-leptanilla.html
‘boopis’?
Yeah, I know.
“Boopis”, pronounced BO-oh-pis, means ox-eye.
Aww, one of my favorite ant names – was so hoping it was Betty-derived (especially given the huge eye on this gal).
As for the well-named Camponotus mirabilis, I imagine the long face is related to life as a bamboo-nesting specialist. Some neat ref’s:
http://biologylabs.utah.edu/davidson/Bamboo_expt.pdf
and Davidson et al. 2006, Unveiling a Ghost of Amazonian Rain Forests: Camponotus mirabilis, Engineer of Guadua Bamboo (look this one up on Gscholar – the link seems to only work intermittently)
Thanks, James, I would have never guessed. Does anyone ever spell it with a diacritic, like the constellation Boötes?
Nope. That is no longer permitted in zoological nomenclature.
Don’t have any other contact address.
The light-green color for part of your text in the new format is very difficult to read. At a minimum select a dark green if used on a white background.
Always enjoy your blog.
Here’s one!
Unless I interpreted this incorrectly, M.symmetochus protects S.amabilis with a confuse attack. (Nature always comes up with the best MMO powers first!)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2416624/Ants-employ-lodgers-SECURITY-GUARDS-Parasites-unite-host-insects-protect-colony.html
There’s no mention it in the article, but if you watch the video they mention the fact that the M.symmetochus defeats the G.bartmani invaders by using a chemical compound that ruins their detection mechanisms, causing them to kill each other instead.