(Edited 03/11/2012)
In mid-September I took a field trip through southern Alberta, hoping I still had time to capture some bug photos before the frost and snow sets in again. I eventually made my way Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, which lies on the southern Alberta border, in view of the Sweetgrass Hills of Montana.
Water glistens off the hoodoos in the Milk River valley. The campground is in the trees on the right.
In the campground, the first bugs I came across were ants farming aphids on poplar leaves: an easy target for a bug photographer that more often finds himself crawling around on hands and knees.
‘Milking’ aphids.
This colony of Formica ravida† was in the well-treed campground beside the Milk River, a biome consisting of Western Plains Cottonwood (Populus deltoides), Narrow Leafed Cottonwood (Populus angustifolia) and Balsam Poplar (Populus balsamifera) interspersed with shrubs such as saskatoon, buffaloberry, chokecherry, willow and wild rose.
More photos of these ants later.
Formica ravida Creighton, 1940. Photographed September 19, 2011 at Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, County Warner, Alberta, Canada. Canon T2i with MP-E 65mm macro lens. Diffused MT-24EX flash with one unit hand-held behind leaf. ISO 400, 1/200@f16.
Thanks to James C. Trager at BugGuide for the ID.
2 Comments
These are the prettiest looking aphids I have seen ! Great super macro photograph! I look forward to exploring more of your site…just subscribed. I am a bug lover.
Thanks for dropping by, Mary!