Putting final touches on a 400 species list for a book I'm writing about ants, for the general public, worldwide coverage.
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Putting final touches on a 400 species list for a book I'm writing about ants, for the general public, worldwide coverage.
I welcome suggestions for species I should include. Whittling 15,000 species down to only a few hundred is harder than it looks, because of course it should have ALL THE ANTS.
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Putting final touches on a 400 species list for a book I'm writing about ants, for the general public, worldwide coverage.
I welcome suggestions for species I should include. Whittling 15,000 species down to only a few hundred is harder than it looks, because of course it should have ALL THE ANTS.
My strategy so far has been to pull the top 10-15 species on iNaturalist from various regions, to replicate what the audience for this book are likely seeing in their own yards, for about 1/2 of the species. For the other 1/2, I've balanced by including interesting taxonomic oddballs and species with unusual behaviors.
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@alexwild
what kind of a book?At 400 species, it seems you would only get about 1 page per species, which doesn't seem like a lot of space for species.
@llewelly It is the ant installment of this series: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo19341340.html
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Putting final touches on a 400 species list for a book I'm writing about ants, for the general public, worldwide coverage.
I welcome suggestions for species I should include. Whittling 15,000 species down to only a few hundred is harder than it looks, because of course it should have ALL THE ANTS.
@alexwild @futurebird Myrmecia brevinoda!!
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Putting final touches on a 400 species list for a book I'm writing about ants, for the general public, worldwide coverage.
I welcome suggestions for species I should include. Whittling 15,000 species down to only a few hundred is harder than it looks, because of course it should have ALL THE ANTS.
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@alexwild @futurebird Myrmecia brevinoda!!
@pmonks @futurebird That one's currently on my marginal list. I have too many Myrmecia, probably need to cut it down to like 5.
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@pmonks @futurebird That one's currently on my marginal list. I have too many Myrmecia, probably need to cut it down to like 5.
@alexwild @futurebird That makes sense - as long as one Myrmecia is on there I’m happy. Bitey aggro little shits.
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Putting final touches on a 400 species list for a book I'm writing about ants, for the general public, worldwide coverage.
I welcome suggestions for species I should include. Whittling 15,000 species down to only a few hundred is harder than it looks, because of course it should have ALL THE ANTS.
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@llewelly It is the ant installment of this series: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo19341340.html
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@futurebird @alexwild
unfortunately several interesting extinct ants were found in that highly problematical Burmese amber. -
@futurebird I'm guessing the editors will shunt the extinct ants to the chapter on ant evolution, instead of being part of the species profiles. But, both excellent suggestions.
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@futurebird I'm guessing the editors will shunt the extinct ants to the chapter on ant evolution, instead of being part of the species profiles. But, both excellent suggestions.
I’d assume you have an Acropyga it’s such a fascinating genus.
Basiceros tumucumaquensis (or at least one dirt ant)
Podomyrma adelaidae (muscle woman ant)
Social hybridogenesis in ants (at least two species do this, and it was the biggest ant news of the year. ) -
My strategy so far has been to pull the top 10-15 species on iNaturalist from various regions, to replicate what the audience for this book are likely seeing in their own yards, for about 1/2 of the species. For the other 1/2, I've balanced by including interesting taxonomic oddballs and species with unusual behaviors.
Gotta have a twig ant like Pseudomyrmex pallidus.
A fugly ant: Apterostigma
Dorymyrmex bureni and Camponotus pennsylvanicus are wonderful common ants, more than meets the eye.
Strobe ants from Australia.
Cataglyphis bombycina, the sliver ant is pretty famous and there are a lot of good books about them.
Camponotus fulvopilosus (or one of the other hairy ants)
Do I need to mention Dinomyrmex gigas?
Also check out this poster:
https://www.tumblr.com/futurebird/750321144832393216/more-amazing-ant-art?source=share -
Gotta have a twig ant like Pseudomyrmex pallidus.
A fugly ant: Apterostigma
Dorymyrmex bureni and Camponotus pennsylvanicus are wonderful common ants, more than meets the eye.
Strobe ants from Australia.
Cataglyphis bombycina, the sliver ant is pretty famous and there are a lot of good books about them.
Camponotus fulvopilosus (or one of the other hairy ants)
Do I need to mention Dinomyrmex gigas?
Also check out this poster:
https://www.tumblr.com/futurebird/750321144832393216/more-amazing-ant-art?source=shareAnd here is a deeper cut: Cataglyphis lutea
Been curious about this ant for years but there is very little written about them despite their striking appearance and behavioral quirks.
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And here is a deeper cut: Cataglyphis lutea
Been curious about this ant for years but there is very little written about them despite their striking appearance and behavioral quirks.
Deep cut ant species for hipsters only.
Cataglyphis lutea? You probably haven't heard of that species but it's OK, you need to really like ants to know about Cataglyphis lutea.
(Do you have any "deep cut" species? Against my better judgement I won't restrict this to ants.
But NO BACKBONES.)
