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Ant pupae are ant larvae that have shed their skin and turned into immobile ant cocoons
3rd PlaceAnt pupae are ant larvae that have shed their skin and turned into immobile ant cocoons
vawendy


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Science V (Standard Editing)
Collection: Portfolio
Lens: Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS
Date: Apr 19, 2022
Aperture: 5.0
ISO: 3200
Shutter: 1/320
Date Uploaded: Apr 20, 2022

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[Apr. 28th, 2022 08:52:51 PM]

So my worry was that people wouldn't think of this as science. But I had to enter it anyway. I was completely fascinated by these ants, had to do a bit or research to understand what I was seeing. And wanted to share it.

My next door neighbor was going to be dropping of a check. She texted me that her son was supposed to put it in our mailbox, but that there was tons of ants and something gross, and he was too freaked out to leave it in there. So the check was under the front mat.

Of course I ignored the check under the front mat, grabbed my camera and went out to the mailbox.

Indeed, there was a massive, writhing pile of ants. I figured something had died and the ants were eating it?

I was thinking "eeeewwwww" and "don't crawl on me!" the whole time. Because I was using my macro lens, and had to rest it on the edge of the mailbox where they were all crawling.

It wasn't something dead. The ants had just decided to nest in the mailbox. And they started scurrying around moving all the eggs/larvae down the screw holes in the bottom of the mailbox.



The larvae were just big white blobs at that point.

Within about 10 minutes, they had moved all the white blobs and all ants out of the mailbox. And it was completely bare.

5 days later, after a rain and no mail, they were back. At this point the larvae had turned into zombie-like ant creatures that had to be carried out.

So where or not you see the science in the shot. I had about a 1/2 hour-45 minutes of reading up on ant biology. :)




Statistics
Place: 3 out of 23
Avg (all users): 6.6667
Avg (participants): 6.7692
Avg (non-participants): 6.6000
Views since voting: 729
Views during voting: 52
Votes: 33
Comments: 6
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
Canon EOS-5D
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
 05/01/2022 11:49:54 AM
Very nice image and a very cool story.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Samsung Galaxy S24, S24+, S24 Ultra
Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm f/4 ZA OSS
 04/30/2022 12:50:24 PM
What an astonishing story, Wendy. You should move it out to the General Forum, maybe with more pictures :-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0 L IS
 04/29/2022 11:45:45 PM
Very cool info behind the shot - and a great shot, too! Thanks!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-5D Mark IV
Canon EF 200mm f/2.8 USM
 04/29/2022 07:19:48 PM
How fascinating! Thanks for sharing the story of this! It is indeed science and most deserving of a top spot here!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS R7
Tamron 16-300mm Di II VC PZD MACRO w/Canon Nikon mount
 04/29/2022 08:59:01 AM
I loved this one and it was a Blue in my voting, really fascinating!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D750
Nikon AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED
 04/29/2022 01:09:46 AM
This is absolutely fascinating. And the whole "move the entire tribe out", and then "move it back in"... so much work. I marvel at the extraordinary strength in their mandibles. I've started tinkering with macro, so kudos, this is wonderful.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
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