Sunday, April 27, 2008

Ant Wars Fought in Columbus, Ohio

In our backyard, there is one certain spot on our limestone patio where tiny ants congregate in a huge mass. I've never really thought much about it, or observed them, really. That was until last week. Over the winter I purchased the Canon EFS 60 mm macro lens, which allows me to get very tight shots of very small things. I thought I'd try it out on the ants. I didn't really go into this trying to study them, I just wanted to get pictures. But after a while, it became evident what was going on.




Can you see what is going on here?




The ants looked as if they were all in direct hand to hand- or rather mandible to mandible combat. Every ant seemed to be locked up with another. Fascinating stuff. I wonder why they were doing this? I wonder what species of ant this is? Since taking these photos, I've paid more attention to the ants that I have found under rolled logs, and the diversity of species is quite fascinating.

Also- Megan and I are in South Carolina right now (for my cousin Amy's wedding), although as I'm writing this we haven't gotten there! I'm trying out blogger's auto post feature. I may drop in a few SC pictures here and there.

Tom

8 comments:

  1. Since I have been battling ants in my kitchen I am not too crazy about this....but the photos are really great! Will look forward to South Carolina pics.

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  2. Cool photos, if vaguely creepy :) Was this two colonies meeting up and duking it out? Some sort of preening thing? I wouldn't think it's reproductive, since ants don't "pair off" in that way.

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  3. Tom: The gladiators were in full armor and having a medieval battle for the land.

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  4. LOL, interesting post and great macro shots of these ants!

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  5. Ewwwwwwww!! These are creepy! LOL Great pictures though. I look forward to your SC pix. I lived in Charleston for about 10 years and we talk about moving back someday.

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  6. Scary ants- I think I am just glad that htis was outside!

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  7. Cool. Those are pavement ants (Tetramorium sp.), a species introduced from Europe. In the spring colonies expand their territories, and these battles are common when two bump up against each other.

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  8. First off, thanks to everybody for commenting. And a special thanks goes to Alex, who has an excellent insect blog, along with a stunning insect photography website. His stuff is really great, and certainly worth a look if you haven't seen his blog and sites already!

    And, for everyone, the SC pics are being downloaded as I type this and we'll have some up very soon.

    Tom

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