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alexwild > Portrait of a mutualism: a swollen-thorn Acacia with the ants that protect it. The hundreds of thorns on a mature tree can house colonies of up to 20,000 ants. filename: spinicola14
alexwild > A mating swarm of the desert leafcutter Acromyrmex versicolor. Tucson, Arizona, USA.
alexwild > A mating swarm of the desert leafcutter Acromyrmex versicolor. The swarm is composed largely of males, as the arriving females are set upon almost immediately and fall to the ground in a ball of ants. Tucson, Arizona, USA.
alexwild > A mating swarm of the desert leafcutter Acromyrmex versicolor. Tucson, Arizona, USA.
alexwild > A single young queen leafcutter- hidden under piles of males- attracts dozens of hopeful mates in a frenzied ball of copulating ants. Acromyrmex versicolor. Tucson, Arizona, USA.
alexwild > A mating ball of desert leafcutters, Acromyrmex versicolor. The larger, red ant at the center is a young queen, the rest are males. Queens of this species mate with multiple males in one morning and store the sperm for use later.
alexwild > Mating flights are a perilous time for ants. Here a newly-mated Acromyrmex queen falls prey to a pair of hungry harvester ants. Acromyrmex versicolor and Aphaenogaster cockerelli. Tucson, Arizona.
alexwild > A newly-mated desert leafcutter queen, Acromyrmex versicolor, sheds her wings. Tucson, Arizona, USA.
alexwild > The cycle continues: an incipient fungus garden sprouts fuzzy white hyphae from the small piece of innoculum that a leafcutter queen carried from her parental nest. The queen has also laid a few pearly white eggs. Acromyrmex versicolor, the desert leafcutter. Tucson, Arizona, USA.
Portrait of a mutualism: a swollen-thorn Acacia with the ants that protect it. The hundreds of thorns on a mature tree can house colonies of up to 20,000 ants.

filename: spinicola14
alexwild > Portrait of a mutualism: a swollen-thorn Acacia with the ants that protect it. The hundreds of thorns on a mature tree can house colonies of up to 20,000 ants. filename: spinicola14
Portrait of a mutualism: a swollen-thorn Acacia with the ants that protect it. The hundreds of thorns on a mature tree can house colonies of up to 20,000 ants.

filename: spinicola14
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all images and text © Alex Wild 2008

insect pictures, insect images, insect photos, insect photography, ant images, bug pictures, bug photographs, insect identification, ant pictures