Nylanderia arenivaga
After a spring rain, a male sand-roaming crazy ant appears at the nest entrance. Stengl Lost Pines Biological Station, Texas, USA.
The sand-roaming crazy ant, Nylanderia arenivaga, is a small insect native to the southeastern United States with the distinctive habit of nesting in yellow sandy soils. It can be recognized by its color and by the dense mat of hairs on its head. Stengl Lost Pines Biological Station, Texas, USA.
The sand-roaming crazy ant, Nylanderia arenivaga, is a small insect native to the southeastern United States restricted to open habitats with yellow sandy soils. Stengl Lost Pines Biological Station, Texas, USA.
A sand-roaming crazy ant emerges from her nest. Stengl Lost Pines Biological Station, Texas, USA.
Coenosia sp.
Tiger flies (Coenosia) are a speciose genus of predatory muscids related to house flies. Austin, Texas, USA.
Phlaeothripidae
Austin, Texas, USA.
Ceratina cobaltina
The long tongue of this small carpenter bee helps collect nectar from deep in a spring dandelion flower. Austin, Texas, USA.
One of the first spring bees of the season collects nectar from a dandelion. Austin, Texas, USA.
Camponotus sansabeanus
Camponotus sansabeanus reproductives, like this male, overwinter as adults, ready to fly and mate at the onset of warm weather. Brackenridge Field Lab, Austin, Texas, USA.
Vespula squamosa
A southern yellowjacket queen overwinters in a chamber underground. In the spring, she will construct a small paper nest to rear out her first workers. Brackenridge Field Lab, Texas, USA.
Cyphomyrmex rimosus garden
Some Cyphomyrmex grow their edible fungus in yeast form, rather than the more common hyphal sponge. Here, golden clumps of yeast adorn caterpillar droppings the ants have collected. Brackenridge Field Lab, Texas, USA.
Cyphomyrmex rimosus
A worker ant in the fungus garden. Brackenridge Field Lab, Austin, Texas, USA.
Odontomachus clarus
After fatally striking a termite, a trap-jaw ant momentarily releases her prey. Brackenridge Field Laboratory, Austin, Texas, USA.
A Texan trap-jaw ant captures a subterranean termite. Brackenridge Field Lab, Austin, Texas, USA.
Pheidole floridana
A queen ant carries a hefty load of mites. Ant colonies often host many species of mites, although the biology of each is typically unknown. Brackenridge Field Laboratory, Texas, USA.
Both the larvae and the queen in this colony of big-headed ants are plagued by mites. Brackenridge Field Laboratory, Texas, USA.
Messor cephalotes
This close-up portrait of an African harvester ant head is a composite of 900 separate photographs. Kenya.
Dicromantispa sayi
The raptorial forelegs of mantisflies are used, like those of a preying mantis, to capture prey. This Dicromantispa has caught a small moth. Austin, Texas, USA.
