Tiny Monsters

Some of the research I'm currently doing with Texas horned lizards involves attempting to analyze their diet. I take fecal pellets that were collected from my study site over the years, break them up under a stereoscope, and identify the heads of the insects within, which are mostly ants. I started taking pictures of some of the heads (and sometimes bodies) for identification through a special scope attachment, and I thought I'd throw a few of them on here for people to see. I take nice, standardized pictures for documentation, but most of these were just me having fun.

Honeypot ants (Myrmecocystus)

Water-harvesting ants (no positive ID yet)

I have no idea...yet

No clue

Beetles of the family Tenebrionidae

Harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex), Panicum seeds (a grass),

and Phyllanthes leaves (a forb)