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Ant Course August 2010

yellow-antWant to learn more about ants? A lot more?

California Academy of Sciences offers an ant course every year. This year it will be held August 15 – 25 at the Danum Valley Field Centre, Sabah Borneo. The course is for “systematists, ecologists, behaviorists, conservation biologists, and other biologists whose research responsibilities require a greater understanding of ant taxonomy and field research techniques.”

I’m afraid I won’t make it this year, but if it is ever held in Portal again, I’m all over it.

For more information, see the ant course home page. Be sure to check out the yearbook to see what the classes have done in the past.

Edit:  The link has changed. See Ant Course 2011 for more recent links.

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Southern Fire Ant

In the previous posts about the silverfish and the rove beetles, I mentioned that I found the insects in native fire ant nests. The native fire ant that is extremely common in Arizona is the southern fire ant, Solenopsis xyloni.

Like other fire ants, the southern fire ant has a clubbed antenna and two nodes in its petiole. As with many southwestern ants, it seems to be highly variable in color. Our local species are dark brown, although the major workers have some lighter red-brown, usually on the head.

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Photo by Michael Branstetter / © AntWeb.org / CC-BY-SA-3.0

As you can see from this photograph, Solenopsis xyloni does have a sting.

Fire ant workers exhibit a range of sizes.

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They make distinct and heavily followed trails to certain foods.

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These are consuming old cat food.

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I noticed the soldiers often vibrate their gasters up and down while feeding.

I’m sure you will see more about this common species in future posts.

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Mark Moffett Coming to Arizona

Super ant photographer and ecologist, Mark Moffett is coming to speak in Arizona March 17, 2010. He will be part of the National Geographic Live! speaker series hosted at the Mesa Arts Center, in Mesa, Arizona. He’s going to speak about “Army Ants and Flying Frogs.” There’s also more information at http://events.nationalgeographic.com/events/event-series/arizona-speaker-series/.

Until then, I’ll have to make do by checking out Mark Moffett’s photography and videos at National Geographic magazine.