Written by Nancy Miorelli

I am so excited and honored to introduce Joanie Mars as our new writer. When Joe and I started this little project about three years ago, we had no idea that it was going to grow into what it has. We now have over 8,800 followers on Facebook, we receive between 50-100 of your emails a week, and over 10,000 views a week on the blog. We just can’t keep up anymore! So we’re incredibly excited to introduce Joanie.

Joanie will be full time with us in August after she defends her thesis and moves to Texas.

Watch our live video below!

Joanie and me when she visited the Maquipucuna reserve

Joanie’s Specality

Joanie is finishing up her Master’s degree from the University of Georgia studying the genetics of the invasive fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) She’studying the genetics behind what makes fire ants either have only one queen in a colony, or what makes them have a lot of queens to one colony. After she defends her thesis she’ll be moving down to Texas to start her PhD further investigating the fire ant’s genetics.

Hobbies:

Joanie is a WONDERFUL cosplayer! You should check out her Ms.Mars page. She makes all her own costumes and travels around the country going to cons.

One of Joanie’s favorite costumes she’s made – Lapis Lazuli

Joanie is also a great photographer so we’re lucky to have her on the team. Here’s one of her favorite trap jaw ants which she saw for the first time in the Amazon when she visited Ecuador.

Daceton  trap jaw ant
PC: Joanie Mars

Joanie’s Favorite Ants

Trap jaw ants! They can snap their mandibles together to grab prey or do backflips!

Some Other Cool Biology Joanie Mentioned

Decapitating Flies:

TL;DR

We have so many of you now following us! And we care about each and every one of you which is why our promise of delivering you quality content regularly is our priority. But to do that, we need a couple extra hands. So we’re happy to have Joanie with us =)

Expect the bios and the art to be updated within the coming weeks.

I wanted in on the Tailless Whip Scorpion Action