31 replies to this topic

[James C. Trager]

These Neivamyrmex opacithorax images were taken on the past two relatively warm and sunny afternoons, from a bivouac in the hollow of a cut-off tree stump. Numerous males were still in the bivouac, even at this late date. It seems unlikely they'll get to fly, now. These have been uploaded to the Gallery - Still learning how to make them appear big here in the post...

 

 

Edited by James C. Trager, November 6 2014 - 11:56 AM.
Fixed images

[dean_k]

Mr. Trager

 

Create a photobusket ( http://photobucket.com/ ) account and upload an image there.

 

And see the screenshot and the red circle.

 

 

Clicking the URL next to IMG will automatically copy the code for you and simple paste it in a post.

[Gregory2455]

Pretty cool though!

[dspdrew]

What happened there was you obtained the URL for the thumbnail image. It's a little more difficult to get the URL to the full sized image on my gallery, since they expect you to use the built-in "My Media" function. You would have to click until you have just the full sized image itself pulled up in your browser, then copy that URL. In a lot of browsers, you can right click the image and select something along the lines of "copy image location". Also clicking the image button and pasting the URL in there is better than just pasting the URL.

 

Is that a male or female?

[James C. Trager]

Well, not quite fixed. Two of the workers trailing image were posted, but not the one with the male. Seems I got it fixed now. 

 

Note, army ant females never have wings.

Edited by James C. Trager, November 6 2014 - 11:57 AM.

[AntsAreUs]

I would like to see the queen!

[Gregory2455]

Here is an image of a queen by Alex Wild.

[Erik Kegge]

I would really like to meet an Army ant in real life ... because I have a healthy respect of these awesome ants.

[AntsAreUs]

Haven't army ants been studied in captivity?

Here is an image of a queen by Alex Wild.

His images are copyright, just wanting to let you know. For some reason google images owns them so you can copy anything from there!

[Gregory2455]

I gave credit, and it is embedded from his website.

[dspdrew]

BTW, all images are copyrighted. A copyright is automatic; it's not something that is applied for and granted.

 

I see a lot of confusion about posting images online. When an image is hosted publicly, posting (embedding) it on a forum or website is merely creating a path or a window to the publicly hosted image. Uploading someone else's image yourself, and making it public without authorization is completely different. It's still courteous to give credit though, since it's not always obvious where the image is actually downloading from.

 

@James C. Trager

Are you saying that Army Ant female alates never even grow wings?

[Alza]

yes, they are born wingless. they mate inside the nest 

[Gregory2455]

Yeah Drew, army ant queens are born wingless, and when they are mature, the colony splits in half, half the workers going with the new, and usually infertile queen, and half the workers going with the original queen. At this point pheromones will be released which males (sausage flies ) will be attracted to, and they will then proceed to mate.

[James C. Trager]

Yep. What the others said. Interestingly, wingless queens also occur (convergently developed) in some other group-raiding ants in the subfamilies Ponerinae, e.g. Leptogenys species.

[drtrmiller]

 

I'm speculating that these striations are vestigial marks from when the species's gynes lost their wings, probably on account of both the evolution of their sausage-shaped morphology, as well as behavioral changes in reproduction strategy, rendering flight meaningless—neither of which would account for why the males kept theirs, however.

[Tspivey16]

Do the males still fly to encourage genetic diversity, or are they also flightless even with wings?

Edited by Tspivey16, November 7 2014 - 7:20 AM.

[Gregory2455]

No, the males can fly. Here is an example of a male. 

[James C. Trager]

Males fly, as suggested, because it's good for dispersing genes. Males of some night-flying species may appear at lights.
 

The spots on the queen's mesosoma are not wing vestiges. In fact, they're on the propodeum which is, anatomically, an abdominal segment - No wings there.  I would also note, those are pigment spots, not striations, which are defined as fine, parallel ridges of the exoskeleton (well, except when they are divergent fine ridges, as on Tergite I of Aphaenogaster mariae).

Edited by James C. Trager, November 7 2014 - 10:52 AM.

[Alza]

same as argentine ant queens. born wingless, but the males have wings and are much smaller 

[James C. Trager]

No Alza, that is incorrect. Argentine queens briefly have wings when they first eclose as adults, but the wings are soon lost, and the ants never fly. Scroll down on the linked page to see a specimen of a young female Linepithema humile with her wings still attached: 
http://antbiker.blog...ecologists.html

Edited by James C. Trager, November 7 2014 - 12:35 PM.