The Battle Rages On!

[Ken Ramos]

This has been going on for two days now. Same three June Bugs, both quite alive it is a wonder , and the the same bunch of ants. Who's winning...well it is anyones guess at the moment. Shot these at work during my lunch break. I suppose Doug and I are the only ones goofing around, on or off the clock.






(Last image cropped from 100%, all others 50% Photo Impact 6, Canon PowerShot G 7 Manual/Macro mode)

[tpe]

Wow, thats quite a sight, any idea what the fight is about? is it normal for these beetles to have this kind of confrontation with ants? possibly ladybird like?

tim

[Ken Ramos]

Don't know what it is all about there Tim, unless the ants have plans to use the June Bugs to winter over on but it is going to be a tough job of it. As for this to be normal behavior, I really would not know. Gordon seems to be our expert on ants. Maybe he will have some enlightenment for us.

Thanks Tim

[beetleman]

I`m going to guess there is some kind of sweet sap coming out of that broken branch whitch is driving their sweet tooth crazy. The ants are not paying much attention to the scarab beetles. Beautiful pictures Ken. Excellent DOF in the third picture.

[Ken Ramos]

Well that branch is dead but that does not mean that something there is not sweet to the ant nor to the June Bugs either. Could be that you are right but still I dunno...

Thanks Doug