Third Place, 2018

Pheidole, the “big-headed ant,” is a hyperdiverse ant genus that is extremely successful across North America. This is a focus-stacked image of a major worker ant of Pheidole dentata, a common species at Brackenridge Field Laboratory. Last year, Dr. Alex Wild found an unknown species of Solenopsis (the same genus as fire ants) at the field lab; that insect was a parasite of a different Pheidole species. Undergraduate Jen Schlauch became excited by the notion that a new species of ant could be found in an urban area known for ant research and embarked on a project examining habitat preferences for Pheidole ants at BFL in hopes of finding more of the unknown species. Instead, she found a different unknown parasitic species of ant, which she is currently studying. She took this photo when trying to learn how to identify different worker ants after collection. The ant in this image was collected by Dr. Wild, photographed by Schlauch, and is part of the Insects Unlocked project.

Credit:
Jen Schlauch
Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior Undergraduate Student