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Photo#597031
dark red queen ant - Lasius claviger - female

dark red queen ant - Lasius claviger - Female
Monroe County, Indiana, USA
November 23, 2011
I found two of these queen ants while I was hiking through some stream-cut ridges outside of Bloomington. The forest was mature and mostly hardwood with minimal underbrush. I found one sheltered between some stones in a riverbank and the other under the bark of a rotten log. I believe they were dormant, as they were quite lethargic and had no workers or eggs. Though not apparent in the photo, she had a single petiole.

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Beautiful
shot! I'm impressed. Thnaks for posting.

 
Thanks
I was really pleased (and surprised!) with it too. I took it with a nikon d40 using the 18-55 kit lens with the on camera flash and these settings: ISO 200, F11, and 1/250 seconds. I placed the ant on a sheet of copier paper and put the lid of a vial over her for about a minute to calm her down. I then held another piece of copier paper horizontally on top of the barrel of the lens but below the flash as a diffuser. I carefully lifted the vial and began to shoot. I had to crop it heavily, but for a kit lens and a few pieces of paper, not a bad shot.

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