The Attini
I have finally gotten some IDs on my Attine specimens, courtesy of Ted Schultz at the National Museum of Natural History. I have updated the main pages of my webpage as well as the specific pages for Apterostigma (1 species + 7 morphospecies), Acromyrmex (1 species), Cyphomyrmex (10 species and morphospecies), Mycetarotes (1 species), Mycocepurus (1 species), Sericomyrmex (2 morphospecies), and Trachymyrmex (6 species). Plus, of course, a bunch of reproductives. I am still waiting on the Myrmicocrypta, which Jeffrey Sosa-Calvo is looking at.
I also updated my Research page, especially the "My progress so far" table. I am somewhat shocked to discover that I am very near to being done with these identifications. How is that possible? I have 8 genera that are currently being looked at by other myrmecologists (Azteca, Paratrechina, Myrmicocrypta, Pyramica, Rogeria, Strumigenys, Hypoponera, and Discothyrea). Besides those, all I have left are Carebarella, Tapinoma, Gnamptogenys, Camponotus, Myrmelachista, Eurhopalothrix, and Octostruma. Yay for me.
photograph © Alex Wild 2004
Photo: Atta ants, which were definitely all over Tiputini, but which never showed up in any of my collections.
I also updated my Research page, especially the "My progress so far" table. I am somewhat shocked to discover that I am very near to being done with these identifications. How is that possible? I have 8 genera that are currently being looked at by other myrmecologists (Azteca, Paratrechina, Myrmicocrypta, Pyramica, Rogeria, Strumigenys, Hypoponera, and Discothyrea). Besides those, all I have left are Carebarella, Tapinoma, Gnamptogenys, Camponotus, Myrmelachista, Eurhopalothrix, and Octostruma. Yay for me.
photograph © Alex Wild 2004
Photo: Atta ants, which were definitely all over Tiputini, but which never showed up in any of my collections.
*ahem*
ReplyDeleteNot be a stickler for copyright or anything, but the Atta picture is a myrmecos.net photo and has nothing at all to do with the "Laboratory of Entomology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven", except that they seem to be using it without permission on their web site. The photo shows a captive colony of Atta cephalotes that was part of the amazing "Ants" exhibit at Cal Academy a couple years ago.
Glad to see your progress on the attines, at any rate. That's a really tough group to get any reliable identifications for, and I suspect that in the long run it'll take a lot of population-level genetic data to work out with any reliability.
Oops! Sorry about that. I have corrected the credit and the link.
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