Posting photographs of one’s food on the web (‘gastroposting’) has gone from bizarre, to hip, to mainstream enough for the Edmonton Journal. Soon it will be deemed dull. Time for a new, edgy form of photographic expression – I suggest gasteroposting. A gasteropost includes a photograph of an ant and of the wound it created on the photographer. During my 11 days at Chamela I have had sufficient encounters for two gasteroposts.
(1) Eciton sp. (army ants!) Context: wearing open-toed sandals when walking on dry tropical rainforest litter at night. Review: intensely exciting at first sting, long-lasting throbbing, finishes with a dry brown necrotic patch.
(2) Pseudomyrmex ferruginea. Context: looking for Bagheera kiplingi on bullhorn acacia. Review: spicy and enthusiastic stinger, deceptively calm post-sting hiatus, impressive puffiness of stung appendage subsequent day.
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