I know my ant photos have nothing on Alex Wild’s fabulous photos of this species, but I was pleased to get this shot anyway:
Acromyrmex versicolor female
This female Acromyrmex versicolor leaf cutter ant was one of several captured during a mating swarm and brought into the lab, where they proceeded to run around like madwomen while I frantically tried to get a shot of one in focus. It was largely unsuccessful (I got 2 decent shots out of 127!), but I like the way this one looks.
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The Dragonfly Woman 
“They proceeded to run around like madwomen”? Sounds to me like the ‘mad woman’ was the one with the camera :-) Great story & picture!
Ha ha! Perhaps! I don’t normally do ants. They like to sting me. A lot. But these are so big and beautiful and have all these crazy spikes coming off them that I couldn’t resist. AND, I didn’t get stung for once, even though I molested these guys for a long time. They are therefore my new favorite ants. :)
Ha ha, Patty P.!! Leaf Cutter Ants are amazing. I did a post about them this winter after coming across a colony while visiting Texas. ~karen
Wow that’s a very cool picture!
Was the mating swarm in February? (I live in Phoenix, but we don’t have leafcutters.)
I can relate to your issues with taking photographs of ants. I try to do it at my blog, but not without immense frustration and quite a bit of pain. How does Alex Wild do it?
No, the mating swarm was actually in late August or early September (I’d have to look up the exact date…). And I don’t know exactly how Alex Wild does his ant photos because I’ve never seen him photograph ants before, but he’s definitely got a system down! His photos really are amazing, aren’t they? I do know that they occasionally result in stings/bites though, so he’s not some sort of ant photographing super human. :)