The NEON ants crew is back at it after a short hiatus for the Ecological Society of America Annual meeting. This time we are headed to the lovely south western United States. Our first stop is right on the border of Southern California and Mexico around the town of El Centro.
A funny story. Having worked a while in Oklahoma, I thought I was used to high temperatures. What I am not used to is 110°F and almost 0% RH. It is insanely hot. And Dry. Yet there are still a number of ant species (from the genera Pogonomyrmex, Dorymyrmex, Forelius, and Myrmecocystys) risking the temperature to forage. Should be fun to see all the neat ant species doing their thing in this rough environment.
Roeder Lab 