Here is my small nervous Formica subsericea. These are black field ants, you can tell them from carpenter ants because they are shiner, only come in one size (no majors with big heads) and their thorax has a dent rather than a hump. They also move differently from carpenter ants which tend to be more deliberate and less spastic.
Today I gave them fruit flies and they have eagerly piled them up in front of the queen. Who looks like she just wants to go to sleep.
There is something very "look mom! look!" about the way they always put whatever food they find right in front of the queen. As you can see she is very full. And very clean. (someone is always grooming her) I need to sign these ants up for some activities. They don't have enough to do, clearly.
Even the queen moves quickly. They are always fighting over who gets to carry what. There is generally a small clutch of eggs in the nest and I have never seen them set it down. An ant is always proudly holding the cluster of new eggs and she won’t let her sisters help her hold it. I think they must sit it down when it’s dark and quiet in the nest— but if I’m taking photos? well we never get to see them calm first that reason! Ants notice photographers! #formica#ants#antvideo
@futurebird ...these may be the skittery ants that I complain about, if they come into the house! I am fairly tolerant of house ants, but we had a crop that would just skitter spastically across you.
They are very spastic. They are "calm" in that clip. When they really go into a full panic it's impossible to even film.
The good news is they are not as interested as some of the smaller black ants are in living in a human house. They really do live up to the name "field ants" they like to be outside, they like fresh insects and have many relations with aphids and scale insects.
They don't like carbs. Ants that infest homes tend to like carbs.
To be totally certian you need to look at this part. Camponotus (carpenter ants, many thousands of species) have a hump. Formica (field and thatching ants) have a dent.
@futurebird I love the small moment of hesitation after one ant hands another the thingy, then steps forward and is now actually closer to the queen than the one it gave the thing to
Ants have poor vision in the infrared and even in red light, but enhanced ultraviolet vision, much like bees and wasps they can see colors we can't in the ultra spectrum.
It allows some desert ants to navigate by the sun... something about polarized light that helps them to find their nest on hot sand where they can't lay pheromone trails. There may be other uses... but I don't know about them.
@futurebird@jonhendry
Havents found any ant UV photos of ants but butterflies use UV to communicate(there is a wikipedia article).
They must have some "reason" to see in that spectrum. If it's a navigation thing it would be interesting how it works.
@futurebird I have a question about ant photography. Would it make sense to shoot in the dark, with a flash?
I'm thinking setting up the camera, lining up the shot, locking in focus, and then killing the lights. Once the ants calm down, set a timer to snap a flashlit shot at regular intervals so and let it run overnight. Then you can just flip through them in the morning and look for the shots where something interesting was happening.
@uastronomer This is interesting but another issue is keeping the ants (who are never still) in frame and in focus. I think this would just result in a bunch of photos of random blurry legs.