AP Photography | Army of Insects

A.P. Photography

Ants, Lives, and Diversity

The 1st half of my investigation studies ants, so look forward to various different species highlighted along the way. You'll see species ranging from Colorado, to Utah, California, and Texas.

Importance of Ants

The Problem, The Perception, The Reality

How do humans impact ants? What ways do we percieve them? can we change this? The 2nd half of the investigation focuses on these questions

COMING SOON

AP Photo Project Summary

The Diversity And Imporatance of ants

Species featured In this photo: Pogonomyrmex rugosus

Part 1:

Are ants Important?

To see the full description of the images, click on them, only a partial description is offered below the image.

Morphologically Distinct

Every species of ant is morphologically distinct from one another. The differences can be major, like a pair of long mandibles which can shut at 240km/h, or minor, like a tiny difference in the length of the hair on the abdomen. But the distinctions always exist between different species. The ant pictured here in this candid portrait is Pogonomyrmex rugosus, or the rough harvester ant. This particular photograph was taken in St. George, Utah, next to a walmart parking lot of all places! Colonies of P. rugosus vary in coloring depending on locality, and of all the colonies I have observed on the road trip I took, this was my favorite (I observed over 20 different locality morphs). The black, striated head contrasts nicely with the red soil of St. george. In the background you can see an angry worker rearing up towards the camera. Which contrasts with the seclusive behavior of our main subject.

Nest Entrance

An ant colonies nest entrance is often very busy, even more so before a nuptial flight. During nuptial flight season, queen and male ants (called alates when they have wings), take off after leaving the nest entrance. Usually, males start flying first, then queens follow. Here we see a nest entrance of Lasius latipes during a nuptial flight. I took this picture while laying on the ground to get the proper angle to see the ants at their level. The central subject, the young red queen alate in the middle standing out from the orange-yellow workers and the black male ants, all of them the same species. With this photo, I wanted to show a little bit of the complexity of ant society. This photo does a good job of showing the organized chaos that goes on during an ant nuptial flight, which is arguably the most important time for any ant colony. I like how the main subject is in great focus showing much of the pilosity (hair distribution) of the queen.