Polistes lanio from Paraguay

 

 

  

 

 

The ant in this Scanning Electron Micrograph is a queen of the genus Acrogpya collected during her mating flight. In her mandibles is a mealy-bug that was taken from her natal nest and will be used to start a new mealy-bug colony in the queen's newly-founded nest. The ants feed on the mealy-bug sugary secretions. There are relatively few records of this 20 million year old behavior. Johnson et al. (2001). Acropyga & Azteca ants with scale insects: 20 million years of  symbiosis. American Museum Novitates, 3335:1-18.

The small queen to the right of the larger brown queen is Temnothorax minutissimus, a workerless social parasite of the species Temnothorax curvispinosus. Although there is often more than one parasite queen in the host nest, only the dominant parasite queen has unfettered access to the host queen, which she grooms almost incessantly, and she is chemically distinctive from competing parasite queens. Johnson et al. (2008) Stealth and reproductive dominance in a rare parasitic ant. Animal Behaviour 76:1965. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.09.003

 

True bugs in the genus Reuteroscopus (family Miridae) have elaborate genitalia, unlike any other group. This is a confocal image of the genitalia of one of these bugs.