The World's Ants Captured in 3D

güttsfükk · #1 ● 05-13-2011, 10:48 AM

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Scientists from the California Academy of Sciences are embarking on a project to take highly detailed digital images of every one of approximately 12,000 ant species known to science. (Pictured here is Cataulacus intrudens of Madagascar)

"They’re amazing insects," says lead researcher Dr Brian Fisher. "Ants [like this fungus-growing species (Kalathomyrmex emeryi) invented farming way before humans did."

Dr Fisher’s project, Antweb, already has detailed images of more than 5,000 species in its catalogue, including this trap-jaw ant (Acanthognathus teledectus) from the tropical forests of Central and South America.

Dr Fisher now plans to travel around the world to take magnified images of the pinned "type specimens" in museum collections. In this picture of Camponotus darwinii, the pin holding the specimen in place can be seen.

To produce these magnified images, the team uses software called Auto-Montage 3D, developed by UK-based Scientific Digital Imaging. This takes and combines 30 different pictures, each along a different plane of focus, revealing details like Harpegnathos saltator's oversized jaw.

This picture shows the head of Costa Rica’s most common leaf-cutter ant (Atta cephalotes). “Before this project, this was just a specimen sitting in a museum drawer,” says Dr Fisher.

Antweb has detailed colour images of every one of the 418 ant species known to inhabit Madagascar, including the longhorned crazy ant (Paratrechina longicornis), known for its erratic and rapid movement.

Dr Fisher says this online ant catalogue will serve as a resource for researchers studying the insects. "It will be easier for [scientists] to work out if what they have found is a new species if they have access to details of every known species," he explains.

"We’ve only discovered about 15% of all the species on Earth," said Dr Fisher. "And people seem more interested in finding life on Mars than the other 85%. I think that’s partly because they aren't able to see this remarkable hidden world."