Tag: ant video

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Eye-catching Behavior in Leptogenys Ants

Okay, you’ve probably already seen these ant videos because they are making the rounds of social networks, but I thought they were worth sharing again.

Bees Unlimited shared this video of Leptogenys ants moving a millipede in Cambodia.

Aren’t those chains of workers surprising?

Here’s a closer view, where you can see the details of the workers better.

I’m surprised this millipede isn’t discharging, because it looks fresh. Maybe it already did.

Finally, here’s another video of the same behavior by a different author at Wimp.com.

Forget the Ant Class in Portal. I’m headed to Cambodia.:-)
What about you?

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Pogolumina Website Shines

Have you discovered David Louis Quinn’s Pogolumina website yet? If you are interested in ants, Pogonomyrmex and/or photography, it is a must see.

David’s new video Domain of the Thatching Ant, Part I is mesmerizing.  Take a look:

You know where I’ll be spending all my free time for the next few week, looking through all the pages. He’s already answered some questions I had about Pogonomyrmex workers harvesting plants around their mounds.

Thanks, David!

I’d love to hear your comments.

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Parasitic Wasps In Action

It’s a jungle out there for ants.

Check out the parasitic wasp, Kollasmosoma sentum, ovipositing in Cataglyphis ibericus ants.

‪In this one Neoneurus vesculus is laying eggs in a Formica cunicularia worker.

‪Finally, Elasmosoma luxemburgense goes after Formica rufibarbis‬ workers.

Nice.

What do you think of creating videos as a way to bring notice to your scientific work?

Reference:

Cees van Achterberg and  José María Durán. (2011). Oviposition behaviour of four ant parasitoids (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Euphorinae, Neoneurini and Ichneumonidae, Hybrizontinae), with the description of three new European species. ZooKeys. 125 : 59-106. .

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Empire of the Desert Ants

Do you get the BBC TV channel? You might want to look around to see if Natural World: Empire of the Desert Ants is playing. It looks fabulous! (or if you live in the U.K., try this link. It doesn’t work in the U.S.)

Cinematographer/photographer John Brown spent 150 days in the Arizona desert filming honeypot ants, Myrmecocystus mimicus. He was able to get some incredible footage of multiple queens founding a nest together, as well as nest raids, etc.

Check out the video clip about the queen and photographs in the article Honey Ant Queens Share the Throne, as well as this YouTube segment from the BBC about a honeypot colony raid on another, smaller honeypot nest.

With some digging, I found that AntsEngland has also loaded up the entire series on YouTube, starting with the first segment.

After you watch the series, look at the bottom of John Brown‘s website, you can also find a link for a free .pdf file of a BBC Wildlife Magazine article on honeypot ants.

Let me know what you think.