Formicary

Myrmecos Blog Science | Tuesday January 06, 2009 |

Odontomachus meinerti trap-jaw ant, Argentina One perk of being at a research university is the opportunity to shoot the various study organisms on campus.  These subjects are interesting - they have to be, or they wouldn’t be studied- and when the...

Bug Girl's Blog Dactylopius opuntiae | Tuesday January 06, 2009 |

The “Well Blog” at the New York Times had a post today about insects in food –and made the same, common error that drives me crazy:  getting the classification of the insect used to make Carmine, a pinkish dye, completely wrong ....

The Ant Room Monday January 05, 2009 |

You know how you get sometimes when you have been working on a revision of a revision of a revision and you are just so tired of the stupid thing you can barely even look at it let alone work on it? Well, that is where I am right now. So... here are some...

Bug Girl's Blog Science | Monday January 05, 2009 |

I just love the internet. 20 years ago I only had random paper flyers to alert me of some of the crazier things that folks on the fringe believe.  Now…they can register a domain, and spread the Good News to everyone! So, to follow-up on the ...

The Ant Room Monday January 05, 2009 |

While looking for info on Ants, Nature's Secret Power , I stumbled across this post comparing ants laying trails to social voting sites like Digg and Reddit. Ants do everything first!

Myrmecos Blog fun | Sunday January 04, 2009 |

From David Attenborough’s The Trials of Life (1990): If you’re interested in learning more about navigation in Cataglyphis , look for papers coming from the lab of Rüdiger Wehner .  His group has produced a stream of really top-notch...

Sifolinia's AntBlog Formicidae | Sunday January 04, 2009 |

Apologies for the lack of recent posts. I moved at the end of November to start a new job in Talgarth, Wales. Following my move it took my ISP a whole month to set up my connection here, with a lot of extended phone calls and a rather long and comprehensive...

Myrmecos Blog arizona | Sunday January 04, 2009 |

leafcutter ant mating swarm, Arizona The sparkle of these insects’ wings was captured by pointing the camera at the sun while standing behind the mating swarm.  I find backlighting to be one of the most pleasing effects for translucent wings. ...

Bug Girl's Blog Science | Saturday January 03, 2009 |

Nature has just released a free PDF file that summarizes some historic evidence for evolution: Readers will find at http://www.nature.com/evolutiongems a freely accessible resource for biologists and others who wish to explain to students, friends or...

Myrmecos Blog phylogenetics | Saturday January 03, 2009 |

In the comments, Eric Eaton makes an observation : I’m left wondering (just a little) why Alex has such a beef with Dr. Wilson. This is not the first post taking a jab at Wilson, so while Alex makes an excellent point, I’m also sensing some underlying...

Bug Girl's Blog Food | Saturday January 03, 2009 |

I was really fascinated by this map , which shows how very sprawled Detroit is, compared to other large metropolitan areas. From a Freep story: “Detroit, where the population peaked at 2 million in the early 1950s, is home to about 900,000...

Bug Girl's Blog brain | Friday January 02, 2009 |

I don’t talked a lot about my head issues, mainly since I find that telling people “Part of my brain came out my ear when I smashed my head in 1991!” can produce a wide variety of reactions, most of which are not positive. Fortunately, my ...

Myrmecos Blog Nature | Thursday January 01, 2009 |

Formica incerta, Illinois Despite a widespread belief that ants produce formic acid, the habit is confined to only one of the 20-some ant subfamilies, the formicinae.  This is among the most abundant subfamilies, containing the familiar carpenter ants and...

Myrmecos Blog diptera | Wednesday December 31, 2008 |

A long-tongued horse fly takes a sip of nectar in Arizona's Chiricahua mountains. 100% crop of the same image. photo details: Canon 65mm MP-E 1-5x  macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D ISO 100, f/13, 1/250 sec, flash diffused through tracing paper ...

Myrmecos Blog earthquakes | Tuesday December 30, 2008 |

There are days when I wish I hadn’t read Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything. Today is one of them .       

Bug Girl's Blog Random | Tuesday December 30, 2008 |

Wack off. No, seriously. It’s an insect repellent! Lovely photos of fecal shields (really!) at Cicindela .  You’ve never seen such beautiful poop. Anna has a lovely post (with photos) about cheating bees . Myrmecos has a year-end ant...

The Ant Room Tuesday December 30, 2008 |

image: Alex Wild via myrmecos : The Demise of the Standard Ant . That is the title of a review by Juergen Heinze , but the idea that our basic conception of how ant colonies work is overly simplistic receives plenty of additional support...

The Ant Room Tuesday December 30, 2008 |

This video is from a documentary titled Ants! Natures Secret Power . I saw it on BoingBoing recently, but it appears to have been around for years. Based on Bert Hölldobler’s research, it shows the excavation of a full sized leafcutter ant colony filled...

Myrmecos Blog Science | Monday December 29, 2008 |

Another year passes.  The economy is in the toilet.  Violence spreads in the middle east.  In these trying times, one question must weigh on the minds of concerned citizens: “What’s happening in world of ant science?” Of course.  Here are...

Bug Girl's Blog Entomology | Monday December 29, 2008 |

I am always interested in the ways in which insects infiltrate into pop culture, and here’s another comic book villain from the Golden Age (1951): Killer Moth! He had a rather strange fashion sense, rather like the Red Bee ( covered earlier @ the Bug...

Myrmecos Blog fun | Sunday December 28, 2008 |

Starring Jack Longino and filmed by Michael Branstetter .  Mmmmm…..       

Myrmecos Blog aphids | Sunday December 28, 2008 |

This morning I was picking through recent ant literature for a 2008 myrmecological retrospective post when I stumbled on this little gem . Why do autumn leaves change to such striking colors?  Kazuo Yamazaki thinks it’s all about the ants: ...

Bug Girl's Blog Entomology | Friday December 26, 2008 |

From the Facebook Group “ Signs that Fascinate and Intrigue” : Why are they against Pesto? I love pesto, especially with some fresh tomatoes. And why is the mafia in Florida, looking for insects to kill? Mysteries. Posted in Entomology,...

Bug Girl's Blog Random | Wednesday December 24, 2008 |

Happy Chanukwanzadiwaleidmas! And there’s a new Tree Lobster Comic that is holiday themed–Check it out! Image swiped from nutmeg66 –thanks! Posted in Random   Tagged: holiday