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my ant farm. not as much fun as i thought it would be. little suckers kept wanting to escape and i felt bad keeping them cooped up. they looked awfully cute carrying around little green sugar sprinkles though.
Ants are well organized and so dangerous for many predator species. Therefore, the huge red and black ants will be given a huge berth by these insectivores in general to avoid severe retaliation as a team. This is noted by other vulnerable predators.
Therefore, the tiny predators that are also prey to larger predators try to mimic (imitate) the ants. They get the black colors and often have the attributes of the ants to be safe.
In this case, the praying mantis that is also an insect, imitates by being the same length, color and having segments of the large black ants. Only their weird antennae and well armed forelegs (first of the 3 pairs of legs) give away the fact that this is a prowling predator!
This female Ant-eating Chat is on a termite mound where the Aardvark had eaten out the termites. It nests in the burrows of the termite. Male Ant-eating Chats have a small white carpal patch.
Initially I thought this was the queen of one of our bull-ants (inch ant) walking around on the leaves of the tree but it didn't look quite right. No elbows on the antennae and small nippers.
~2.5cm
21 March 2011 Male winged 'Bull ant' - See Myrmician's comment below.
We have two bull ant nests near the tree.
I must work out my flash. :(
I haven't spent much time trying to photograph or identify ants. I suspect it is well beyond me. I thought these ants especially pretty with their stripes. I always find it interesting how they tend their little "flocks" so carefully.
Ants and Aphids. That symbiotic relationship. Ants gather the honeydew and in return the Aphids get some protection from predators.
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae (pronounced /fɔrˈmɪsəˌdiː/), and along with the related wasps and bees, they belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. Today, more than 12,000 species are classified with upper estimates of about 14,000 species. They are easily identified by their elbowed antennae and a distinctive node-like structure that forms a slender waist.
Ants form colonies that range in size from a few dozen predatory individuals living in small natural cavities to highly organised colonies which may occupy large territories and consist of millions of individuals. These larger colonies consist mostly of sterile wingless females forming castes of "workers", "soldiers", or other specialised groups. Nearly all ant colonies also have some fertile males called "drones" and one or more fertile females called "queens". The colonies are sometimes described as superorganisms because the ants appear to operate as a unified entity, collectively working together to support the colony.
Ants excavate clay-rich soil as they build their subterranean nest.
Finca Las Piedras, Madre de Dios, Peru
A lone black ant queen. Not sure what she was doing out all by herself. No sign of other flying ants.
Ants crawling on the buds of peonies. These peonies are over 100 years old, originally my grandmother's in Illinois.
Ants. I think the front one was hurt or something. He didn't move for a long time. Looked kinda paralyzed.
This ant would just stand motionless, waiting for a smaller ant to walk by, and then it would attack.
Red ants (Myrmica rubra) panicking after I lifted the piece of bark they were nesting under. After photographing them I carefully replaced their cover.
The ants and termites come out en masse at night (by contrast, we barely saw any ants or termites during the day) and form massive highways going to and fro.
Two ants are carrying a chunk of some larger insect up an ocean-facing cliff toward their nest. It looks like mandibles at first, but I think it might be an earwig-y tail pincher.
This is through the 350D’s kit lens and then the 50 mm f/1.8 (“thrifty fifty”). I’d heard of reversing a normal prime to get macro, but I found that holding it forwards gave even closer focus – approaching 1:1, perhaps. It was awkward and optically iffy, and I probably got some micro-scratches on the mounts and UV filters, but it cost less than $500 to get tolerable macro so I’m happy. I shall call this the hackro.