Soldier Ant

[deetheturk]

I came across this guy yesterday,to give an idea of its size,that's a worker bee in its gob,and boy can he move C&C Welcome!





Cheers David

[Shadowman]

Nicely done and nicely presented.

[flashback]

What a great shot and composition; reminds me of a shot of a cheetah dragging its kill (and FWIW he is a she (as is the worker bee)).

[Wavelength]

Excellent as ever before

[bnnrcn]

Yes, excellent David Still difficult for me to get used to the war in nature

[redrew]

A vivid macro photograph David, great depth of field not common to such photographs. Can you tell us the camera and lens used? I am no entomologist; is the Soldier Ant part of the so called "Army Ants" found in the Amazon Basin?

[Otavio]

Very nice, David. Nice contrast between the ant and the background. Regards,

[deetheturk]

Cheers as always John

[deetheturk]

Thanks Jack,how can you tell the sex of these critters then?

[deetheturk]

Cheers my friend

[deetheturk]

Thank you Binnur,yes it is unfortunate but makes good images

[deetheturk]

Cheers Rollin,this image was taken with a Canon 5d mk111 and Canon 100mm macro lens,as for the title,i am in Turkey and have seen lots of ants,but never one this big,i looked up ants on google where there were various images named soldier ant's,one of which is the same as this one!

David

[deetheturk]

Thank you Otavio,much appreciated bud

David

[Stagecoach]

Good one David, it's amazing what these guys can move around. I wish I could find some decent size ants here ours are all microscopic ones this time of year.

Grahame

[deetheturk]

Cheers Grahame,this is the biggest and fastest one i have come across,the one's around here are usually tiny as well,they can still move rather large food sources with relative ease though

David

[flashback]

Thanks Jack,how can you tell the sex of these critters then?

Dave, when it comes to ants, any ant you see that doesn't have wings is a female. The males stay inside the nest until the queens are ready to leave and start their own colony. These queens will leave the nest followed by all the males(swarm). The queens will mate and find a suitable place while the males will die within a day or two of mating. The queens mate only this one time, are fertilized and will lay eggs for the rest of their life.

[deetheturk]

Thanks Jack,i suppose i should know these things,consider me educated, again