Today I placed the last nine pitfall traps, and collected the twelve traps I had placed earlier. The ant diversity here is incredible. The traps caught three Odontomachus bauri workers, a beautiful black trap-jaw ant that is a generalist predator on leaf-litter insects. Its mandibles, used to capture prey, can close at speeds of 145 miles per hour, giving these ants the fastest self-powered predatory strike in the animal kingdom. The average duration of a strike is a mere 0.13 milliseconds, or 2,300 times faster than the blink of an eye.
I also was able to capture a single worker of large, very fast and agile black ant species that I have so far been unable to identify. As John mentioned, it seems to be mimicking wasps, which is not a behavior I have ever heard of. Myrmecomorphy, or the mimicry of ants by other species, is common in wasps; but as far as I know, the mimicry of wasps by ants is not well-documented. Further research will be needed once we return to Dallas to determine the classification of this ant.
All in all, it was a great day of field work. I love it out here. I think I could do this kind of work the rest of my life. Tomorrow's our last day to collect data. I'm looking forward to spending another day with these amazing ants.
-Sebastian
I also was able to capture a single worker of large, very fast and agile black ant species that I have so far been unable to identify. As John mentioned, it seems to be mimicking wasps, which is not a behavior I have ever heard of. Myrmecomorphy, or the mimicry of ants by other species, is common in wasps; but as far as I know, the mimicry of wasps by ants is not well-documented. Further research will be needed once we return to Dallas to determine the classification of this ant.
All in all, it was a great day of field work. I love it out here. I think I could do this kind of work the rest of my life. Tomorrow's our last day to collect data. I'm looking forward to spending another day with these amazing ants.
-Sebastian
That is so exciting, Sebastian! I hope the identity of your mysterious wasp/ant doesn't elude you too much longer because I'm anxious to find out what it is!
I'll let you know what I find, Kelsey. I should be able to identify them once I get back to the lab in Dallas.