About Me

Why is my logo a weird-looking ant?

This baby is an illustration of "Ectatomma metallicum," a misnamed ant featured in W.W. Froggatt's 1907 Australian Insects. (This is the same unfortunately-named Walter Wilson Froggatt known for such popular works as Sheep-maggot Flies and Their Parasites and Insects Living in Figs, with Some Account of Caprification.) Ah, anyway, the species is now properly known as Rhytidoponera metallica or by its logically consistent common names: the green-head ant or the metallic pony ant.

Although I have nothing against R. metallica, I'm much excited about its amazing New World cousin, Ectatomma ruidum. But since they look so similar—and since ole Froggie's illustrations are in now the public domain... No one needs to know, okay?

What research am I doing at the moment?

I am interested in many different things, but most of my current research falls under the umbrella of "grocery shopping for ants."

How else I can connect with you?


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