Fire ants and butterflies

The video below is about something so beautiful about fire ants that I was compelled to share. This is the product of an amazing study by other Brazilian colleagues working with Solenopsis saevissima. Watch and learn!

The background study behind this can be found here. 

Some facts about French Guyana

Since French Guyana is such an exotic place and not many people I know have seriously considered the possibility of going there, I will add further notes on the place, and try to encourage others to know the area.

As soon as your airplane approaches the airport at Cayenne, you realise the forest is indeed untouched by the French government: the horizon is an undulating green mesh of foliage, and the abundant trees and bogs stop flush to the fence by the landing lane. Practically no buildings or clearings to be seen. This is something maybe my Brazilian comrades ought to see as to realise the kind of result one expects from environmental protection measures.
Temperature is always hot, the air always heavy from high humidity, mosquitoes are everywhere near the vegetation or around you after 6 pm. You get to see Chinese, French, Haitians, Brazilians, Dominicans, and eventually even other peoples populating the streets. A few buildings, and beyond those, only the jungle or water. I particularly found the Haitians the most sympathetic people around to chat with, really nice chaps.

This is a very large tree at Montaigne des Singes (sorry could not rotate image)

Each city is quite far from each other, taking a 40-60mins drive to get somewhere else. The highways are in good state, though quite narrow and empty -- this further accounts for the good conservation of local nature. Practically nothing is produced locally at French Guyana, what also accounts for great nature... and awfully high prices. You will easily pay 8 euros for 500g of raw meat, or some ordinary fish, to take home. Local radio plays French songs, some American dance music, and a lot of Brazilian tunes (not exactly the best one in my opinion). TV offers little variety, local programs are not too good, and many stick to channels from France.
In a few words: it is a colony. An authentic, wild, overseas colony of the 21st century.

Typical house at Bourg, in Kourou

I definitely recommend visiting French Guyana, especially if you are a nature/adventure addict. And a nice piece of information to any scientists: there is no need for permits to collect and study local specimens, which include great rainforest insects, amazing snakes and birds, and all sorts of weird plants you can think of. Considering one almost gets lynched in my country just from attempting to collect beetles as one's hobby, this is indeed fantastic.

The beach at Kourou

Another curiosity about the place: French Guyana holds one of the main international stations for launching satellites and missiles -- thus you get the chance to watch a rocket making into space from inside your tent in the middle of tall jungle. I certainly plan to do this next time I stay there, if I get the chance!

Adventurous French Guyana

I am very sorry for being away for so long. I will be posting some personal impressions and comments on some of my latest trips... and on ants I have seen! I will start with French Guyana. I spent 10 days there after fire ants, Solenopsis saevissima. The little bastards almost killed me. I thought Brazilian fire ants (including S. invicta most readers here know) were nasty enough -- well, I had not yet met the fire ants in Guyana. They are larger, faster, redder (if there is such a word), and angrier!! Their underground nests (mounds are small because of the soil quality) undoubtedly stem directly from Hell: once you touch them, a surge of red-hot walking needles bursts straight for you. And they know how to get around any protection you have. I will give you the general idea below. 

This is one of the places in where I could find many nests. As you can see, there are no visible mounds. You step on a nest and you will soon realize it -- nice and gentle!

 A glimpse on the pesky things. I will illustrate them further in following posts. As I said, quite reddish, actually rather orange in colour. They were nasty!

 

This is outcome of my first day in the field. Disgusting and uncomfortable, to say the least. Situation got worst with passing days, no matter what protections I wore.

Yay! New published paper!

It was difficult in all stages, and did not come out 100% the way I think it should, but hell yeah, I am very happy with it!

Dos Santos Pinto, J.R.A., Fox, E.G.P., Saidemberg, D.M., Santos, L.D., Da Silva Menegasso, A.R., Costa-Manso, E., MacHado, E.A., Bueno, O.C., Palma, M.S., 2012. Proteomic view of the venom from the fire ant Solenopsis invicta Buren. J. Proteome Res. 11, 4643–4653. https://doi.org/10.1021/pr300451g

http://cen.acs.org/articles/90/web/2012/08/Proteins-Revealed-Fire-Ant-Venom.html

Any comments are welcome!!

New published larval description!

Aren't they amazing?? Take a face-down look into the leaf-cutting babies rosy cheeks, below.

I will upload it to my list of publication, soon enough, and update this post. Have fun!

The paper can be found as below:

Solis, D.R., Fox, E.G.P., Ceccato, M., Reiss, I.C., Décio, P., Lorenzon, N., da Silva Menegasso, A.R., Bueno, O.C., 2012. On the morphology of the worker immatures of the leafcutter ant Atta sexdens Linnaeus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Microsc. Res. Tech. 75, 1059–1065. https://doi.org/10.1002/jemt.22031

Always loved taking pics of Odonata. I think they are quite elegant, posing to pics. However should you try to capture them, they fly away within a second. I have been told they can bite, severely, if mishandled. Unfortunately I never was quick enough to try them.

The one at the far top was photographed in a Park at Rio Claro, Sao Paulo, Brazil. The second one was photographed at Itaipava, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in a house garden by the pool.

Amazing little fairies...

Stingy News

So!

I have some interesting news:

Note: this pic has nothing to do with the post. except that it is about ants. A gang of Camponotus abusing a poor Atta male who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Cest la vie...

1) In a couple of months I hope I will be able to post here my new method for ant venom extraction! It is now submitted, and I am confident it will generate some interesting discussions!

2) I will be going to French Guyana in a couple of months to collect fire ants in a collaboration with Switzerland! I am most totally thrilled at the prospect. Will certainly fill this blog with images from the trip!

3) Also I am getting my first experiences inject fire ant venom compounds in our HPLC system. Since all is new I cannot say for certain if our first impressions are good... let us hope!