antmaps.org!

"The goal of antmaps.org is to provide an intuitive and efficient framework for professional and amateur myrmecologists to visualize the known distribution of ant species(…)"

Extremely interesting!!!

*AN ANT EXCHANGE COMMUNICATION PLATFORM*

Interesting communication platform for exchanging ant samples! Hope this will "catch" and boost research in Myrmecology. I was the very first to enter a request, will post here what becomes of it!!

The development of Evania appendigaster L. in urban cockroaches

I have created the images for this video (edited with help of genius Dr Roberto Eizemberg) some years ago, to illustrate the context of one of my favourite papers. Maybe viewers from here would like to comment on it?

Not a new ad or post but always worth seeing it again

Switzerland is an amazing country. As this genial ad tries to convey. I find it absolutely epic.

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/tourism-ad-makes-switzerland-look-lovely-if-youre-ant-136057

Some curiosities behind the ad: Formica rufa L. is a protected species in Switzerland, causing some activists to force the removal of the ad from online access. In turn, the protagonist in the video claims it is actually F. polyctena, which is not protected. What do readers think?

Awesome video on fire ant stings and venom!

I am deeply impressed by the quality of animation and technical info of this material! Somethings like this does not come out everyday!

Hope these guys keep up with such amazing work!

So! I have been away from this blog for quite a while... 

Will try to make up for this. I will following proceed with a series of posts on ideas I mentioned in a book chapter I just published. The complete reference for this chapter (online since SEPTEMBER 2014) and respective link is http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-94-007-6649-5_38-1

Let us see how much impact is generated by some facts I mention on this chapter!.. For instance, did you read the statement given by Bates (1856) in his famous The Naturalist on the River Amazons, describing the problem with fire ants in the Brazilian Amazon? “This species is exclusively found in sandy soils, in open semi-cultivated or neglected places [where] they increase only in the neighbourhood of deserted houses or unweeded plantations; consequently they are a scourge only to the lazy and worthless people that inhabit the shores of this magnificent river.” – Poor fellow, he was unaware that, essentially 100 years later, these fire ants would become a “scourge” to many different peoples around the planet! Curiously the specific passage seems to have been censored out without notice from present today's digital public copies of this book!!

 

Amazing documentary showing the use of dogs to help eradicate fire ant colonies. With one of those and some hot water with detergent one could very well get rid of fire ants over a large area with minimum impact and small workforce.

Also in the link below:

Fire ant dogs detection (SPANISH)

Update 25/09/2015

Only now I have read this amazing study describing the use of dogs in locating fire ant colonies!! Kind of sheds light on the matter.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/50396930_Fire_Ant-Detecting_Canines_A_Complementary_Method_in_Detecting_Red_Imported_Fire_Ants