I don’t typically post a lot of ant shots, because I don’t typically take a lot of them. Ants are frenetic subjects; they don’t like the lens, but usually I can’t tell if they are wary of it or too busy for its annoying presence. This particular ant is a carpenter ant, and it appears to be carrying some other arthropod remains. (It looks like a Phidippus audax corpse or exuviae to me, but that’s just a guess.) I think the carpenter ants get a bit of bum rap. Often referred to as “termites” (nope!), they can be destructive, but typically they only make their homes in rotten wood — so you’ve probably already got a problem; they are the symptom, not the disease so to speak.

Anyhow, I got some good focus on this one. Ants can be nasty, cruel and relentless creatures, but they are one of the more fascinating groups of arthropods. One day maybe I will have the patience to do them justice, photographically speaking.