Pheidole dentigula major worker.

Gainesville, Florida, USA
Pheidole dentigula minor worker.

Gainesville, Florida, USA
Minor workers of the southeastern Pheidole metallescens are one of North America's few iridescent ants.

Gainesville, Florida, USA
Pheidole metallescens major worker.

Gainesville, Florida, USA
Pheidole metallescens major worker.

Gainesville, Florida, USA
Pheidole metallescens, minor and major workers. Major workers of some species of Pheidole are repletes, storing large amounts of liquid food in their social stomachs.

Gainesville, Florida, USA
This parasitic Aphaenogaster tennesseensis queen has just penetrated a nest of her host species, Aphaenogaster rudis. She is highly attractive to her victims, who unknowingly tend her and begin raising her eggs as their own. The original host queen killed, this colony will gradually turn into a full nest of A. tennesseensis.

Manhattan, Kansas, USA
This parasitic Aphaenogaster tennesseensis queen has just penetrated a nest of her host species, Aphaenogaster rudis. She is highly attractive to her victims, who unknowingly tend her and begin raising her eggs as their own. The original host queen killed, this colony will gradually turn into a full nest of A. tennesseensis.

Manhattan, Kansas, USA
This parasitic Aphaenogaster tennesseensis queen has just penetrated a nest of her host species, Aphaenogaster rudis. She is highly attractive to her victims, who unknowingly tend her and begin raising her eggs as their own. The original host queen killed, this colony will gradually turn into a full nest of A. tennesseensis.

Manhattan, Kansas, USA
Pheidole dentigula major worker.

Gainesville, Florida, USA
Pheidole dentigula major worker.

Gainesville, Florida, USA
Pheidole dentigula major worker.

Gainesville, Florida, USA
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all images and text © Alex Wild 2001-2013