Whenever my mom lets out a shrill yell or a scream, I'll know that there's something... some creature... in the house. A few days ago, it was this insect on the living room curtains. From afar, I thought it was a wasp at first (since we get plenty of those parasitic wasps around, carrying their victimised paralysed caterpillars into our rooms) but closer observation revealed it to be a winged ant. Quite a big one at that, too. A queen, travelling around to found a new colony? I might have studied a lot about eusocial insects and answered exam questions on them, but when it comes to actually identifying one irl, I must admit I need practice.


Alate hymenoptera
(Alate: a fancy scientific-ish term referring to 'winged' insects.
Hymenoptera: the order of insects which includes ants, wasps and bees)

posted by Husky @ 7/17/2005 04:26:00 PM  |