tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25982925833465028592008-07-23T20:45:42.775+01:00Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-69304231980232008032008-07-21T20:09:00.009+01:002008-07-22T13:20:38.820+01:00

Seven weeks ago (to the day) I found a Lasius queen in a soil claustral cell beneath some moss in a woodland. I don't make a habit of collecting Lasius queens to rear colonies from - they are two-a-penny in the UK (only slightly more expensive than a-dime-a-dozen at todays exchange rate) and the workers are marvellous escapologists, making them difficult to keep. However, this queen looked like

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-4897882507318412222008-07-12T21:43:00.003+01:002008-07-12T22:00:38.580+01:00

I honestly can't remember the last time a new species of invertebrate was found in the UK (excluding bacteria from the definition). That makes it quite an event when something as significant as a slug is found, sort of the British equivalent of the Vu Quang ox. The slug was described by specialists at the National Museum of Wales and Cardiff University, who named it Selenochlamys ysbryda, after

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-2280107120378699162008-07-12T16:12:00.007+01:002008-07-13T11:30:15.415+01:00

It's been too long since I last added anything to this blog, so it is a shame that I write this in the middle of fixing a(nother) mistake. I originally thought this specimen was Temnothorax nylanderi, collected well outside of its known range, and had started to pursue this, involving other people. Instead it is Temnothorax saxonicus and I'm feeling quite sheepish. What's especially silly is

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-25495220582899126442008-06-22T20:14:00.007+01:002008-06-22T20:35:16.311+01:00

Always on the look out for something really weird, in 2006 I found this grotesque thing. The general impression is of a set of giant rotting teeth. It didn't take much tracking down. Many fungi are host specific, so if you can tell what the fungus is growing on you stand a chance of identifying it. This rises to a good chance when the fungus is as distinctive as this. In this case the host was

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-80578738307519696802008-06-21T22:54:00.007+01:002008-06-22T11:37:04.744+01:00

Put simply, morphometrics is 'measuring shapes'. In the normal, biological context this refers to the shape of study organisms. It is used by the taxonomist as a way of determining species boundaries. Not long after I first encountered morphometrics I found myself working on tricky Lasius sp., which meant that I had to try to make sense of Seifert (1992). Seifert seems to be the Master of

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-43948406200786799842008-06-14T18:00:00.026+01:002008-07-20T19:25:00.079+01:00

Another place visited; another list of ants collected. This time the area covered is a small part of Bavaria, as a result of a visit to the University of Regensburg. This list will develop over the next few weeks, as I have numerous specimens to look at. Once I have identified everthing I will send a full list of the records to the university and to any other interested parties. It is possible

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-16134423416163686282008-06-13T22:50:00.012+01:002008-06-13T23:45:13.250+01:00

Fairly regularly something comes along and completely stumps me, but it doesn't normally happen with European ants. I thought I knew Myrmica well, especially M. scabrinodis, which is one of the species I most regularly encounter. This Bavarian specimen really has caused me to do a disproportionate amount of work to resolve it's identity. First of all I wasn't even 100% certain that it was a

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-9933135339047611072008-06-12T14:49:00.002+01:002008-06-12T14:56:51.804+01:00

In the 1950s and 60s Dr. Peter Witt made a number of studies on the effects of various drugs on orb-web spiders, particularly the visible effects that the drugs had on their webs. I found out about this research when I was at college, but for a long time assumed that it was just an urban myth. However, there is now the following video, which explains what actually happened:

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-55977737392624767052008-06-10T21:27:00.014+01:002008-06-13T23:41:12.248+01:00

The British summer has finally arrived, which means my flat is hot. Really hot. Too hot to look down a microscope without everything steaming up. As a result all ant work has had to cease until it cools down1. I thought that in the meantime I might present some photographs of other things. I have an online gallery that I kept running for about 3 years and then neglected, so I'm letting the

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-51395501309766097562008-06-02T21:23:00.007+01:002008-06-02T21:58:25.659+01:00

This is a new one for me - like a lot of people I didn't even know such things existed. Last month I was surveying a site in Surrey, just outside of Greater London, and had found a nice south facing slope with a thermophilic invertebrate community present. This included mining bees Andrena sp., plus the cleptoparasitic nomad bees Nomada sp. and bee-flies Bombylius sp., and the wasp

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-29799439761480531442008-05-18T14:11:00.008+01:002008-05-28T19:25:56.976+01:00

I've been pretty quiet recently as I've been very busy organising my first overseas anting trip of 2008. About a month ago, the University of Regensburg, Germany, invited me to visit them. Part of the trip will involve a seminar, so I've been trying to write the seminar, arrange travel, etc. and re-learn the little German I knew 15 years ago. This and my full-time job have left little time for

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-86899237322426767842008-04-27T10:53:00.005+01:002008-04-27T17:11:16.279+01:00

It is with sadness that I report the death of Roy Snelling. Roy was one of the great figures in the study of Hymenoptera. He died in his sleep at the start of an expedition in Kenya. I only had a small amount of contact with Roy, so I won't say too much. I met him on the Ant Course in Cairns, 2006 and had some email contact with him afterwards. He was a brilliant man with a wicked sense of

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-67487703195420673872008-04-25T18:19:00.003+01:002008-04-25T18:24:37.453+01:00

It must be my inner child. This video had me in tears. I'm just not sure whether this counts as cruelty - my belly aches in sympathy.

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-72526181213718594922008-04-24T21:34:00.006+01:002008-05-16T19:23:12.080+01:00

The last of the boring but possibly useful lists. This covers those counties where I only have a few species recorded or in my collection. Those from Ireland and Senegal were collected by me. My parents have been good enough to collect ants for me, including from Mallorca and Austria. Specimens collected by David M. King were passed to me for identification; these came from Italy, Kuwait,

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-74735349757666578952008-04-22T20:58:00.010+01:002008-07-23T20:45:42.811+01:00

This is the most incomplete of the lists I'm going to present. There are two main reasons for this: the taxonomy of the Australian ant fauna is incredibly difficult, making identification hard, and I was interrupted by my work on the Gambian fauna. Eventually I will get back to these collections. They are the result of my attendance on the Ant Course 2006, plus an extra week that I stayed. This

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-41062895281473526672008-04-21T20:23:00.004+01:002008-05-16T19:24:25.304+01:00

This list of ants in my collection was the result of a two week 'holiday' in the Dordogne and Massif Central areas of France. It was the first time I had ever collected ants outside of the UK and forecast the end of 'normal' holidays for me! More information on the ants of France can be found at Fourmis, the French ant forum. Dolichoderinae &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Dolichoderus &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-53532667813278996872008-04-20T21:52:00.007+01:002008-05-16T19:24:42.016+01:00

The other day I had a request from Professor James K. Wetterer at Florida Atlantic University. He had seen the invasive species listed as present in The Gambia and wanted further details of those and others that I had collected. This lead to two surprises. The first was that someone was paying attention and cared what I get up to. The second was the large number of invasive ants I have collected

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-3419519962907550352008-04-19T16:04:00.004+01:002008-04-19T16:08:38.231+01:00

Whoa! Just browsing the other ant blogs and newsgroups and discovered that this blog is now linked from Myrmecos Blog!

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-69708057111713512332008-04-19T14:57:00.007+01:002008-04-20T15:39:41.766+01:00

It was two months ago that I posted this image claiming it to be Tapinoma ambiguum. I was wrong - but that is nothing new! Shortly after posting it I took the specimen to Cedric Collingwood, who glanced at it under a microscope and said 'Ah, it's festae!' Since then I've been planning to update this blog with a proper correction, but I wanted to be sure that I know why it is this species. Why

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-40785390278309491252008-04-18T18:15:00.004+01:002008-04-18T18:27:18.313+01:00

The picture below was posted on the BWARS forum. This has to be the best bee hotel I've seen. If only I had a garden where I could build one of my own.

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-57134102031447923542008-04-12T12:50:00.007+01:002008-04-13T21:11:51.002+01:00

I previously thought I had collected Monomorium dictator in the Gambia, as that is what this specimen keyed out as. However, I've been doing a lot of work on the salomonis-group recently and I no longer think that I was correct. I now think it is Monomorium dakarense. It all boils down to couplet 36 of Bolton's (1987) key. I think it would be possible to debate for hours over whether the

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-6783515244416586112008-04-06T22:34:00.006+01:002008-04-06T23:21:32.173+01:00

I've updated the links list. Highlights include 'Formicary' and 'SuperOrganism'. Formicary is 'an aggregator for ant and other hymenopteran blogs', which basically means that it collects new additions to English ant blogs. At the moment, I do much the same using NewsFox, but this should pick up on things that I would otherwise miss. Currently it's at a temporary location, but I think it's a

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-28822407013503062952008-04-01T17:45:00.003+01:002008-04-01T18:02:57.004+01:00

Word is spreading of a newly discovered invasive ant species that looks set to cause havoc worldwide, reports the Applied Journal of Cryptozoology. The recently named Nulverum electrophilum has been found in Wotton-under-Edge, UK, where it appears to be attracted to electrical fields. In such situations it has been known to invade electrical systems, causing extensive damage by chewing wiring and

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-1248949445983168942008-03-25T19:56:00.006Z2008-03-25T20:42:46.303Z

When I first attempted to identify this ant I decided that it was Monomorium exiguum, though I wasn't exactly convinced. I was using Bolton (1987), though I find the key fairly vague at times, which isn't helped by the fact that the descriptions aren't exactly consistent and many species lack diagrams. M. exiguum is the last species in the key - okay, so there aren't that many Afrotropical

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598292583346502859.post-68617894015214425782008-03-25T13:06:00.006Z2008-03-25T13:58:45.433Z

I originally identified this as Camponotus cosmicus and wrote a nice long blog defending my decision to call it that. I even provisionally synonomised it with a few other species and subspecies. I was wrong! At the time, I sent photographs to Brian Taylor, who replied, 'Why do you not think this is Camponotus vestitus?' Perhaps I should have recognised that his far greater experience was likely

Sifoliniahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048875053273319777noreply@blogger.com