Portrait of a Queen

This is a picture of a queen carpenter ant; she was taken as part of a raid on a large colony back in the heat of the summer.

There were many queens there, and even more drones and workers. Their frenzied movements made the ground look almost like a threadbare black-and-gold carpet, the gold being their wings of course, upon the soft brown floor of the shattered, softened former tree-trunk . They were running for their lives but I captured many of them. Readers of my other blog will know my reason for the raid.

Anyway, I couldn't help but think of Mab, even though she's a Termite of course and not an Ant. I should consider having specimens -- insects in particular, but other creatures also -- in front of me so as to write about them while inspired by their lifeless forms. Or at least find if that will work for me....

For no particularly good reason other than my own amusement, I'll add that, regardless of whatever date this entry posts on, I'm writing this on Winter Solstice 2009. This entry was languishing in the 'drafts' bin and I finally finished it. Such is my screwball methodology.