173 replies to this topic

[DaveJay]

Protected species, so a no go

I didn't realise any ants were protected to be honest, but then when I've looked at the lists I was mainly concerned with birds,fish and reptiles, ants weren't really on my radar back then. I'm pleased to hear it to be honest, surprised but pleased.

[DaveJay]

Do you have a link to a list? I'm not doubting you but there are no insects on the South Australian protected species lists. I've been searched for a national list and while I can find a list of recognised endangered species I see it contains a frog species that is not protected in S.A. I'm not sure that endangered equals protected necessarily. I did find ants on lists, but those are NSW government lists and don't apply in S.A. Our laws may be a bit different, I've even emailed the Department of heritage etc etc (formerly the Dept of Wildlife) asking about collecting scorpions in national parks and other government reserves and the answer was collecting inverts was legal, but some collection methods may not be. I think in S.A. insects can be listed as noxious species and so illegal to keep but they don't appear on the protected fauna and flora lists at all, no terrestrial inverts at all in fact.
I only searched for an hour or so but a link would come in handy if you have one!

[CoolColJ]

Do you have a link to a list? I'm not doubting you but there are no insects on the South Australian protected species lists. I've been searched for a national list and while I can find a list of recognised endangered species I see it contains a frog species that is not protected in S.A. I'm not sure that endangered equals protected necessarily. I did find ants on lists, but those are NSW government lists and don't apply in S.A. Our laws may be a bit different, I've even emailed the Department of heritage etc etc (formerly the Dept of Wildlife) asking about collecting scorpions in national parks and other government reserves and the answer was collecting inverts was legal, but some collection methods may not be. I think in S.A. insects can be listed as noxious species and so illegal to keep but they don't appear on the protected fauna and flora lists at all, no terrestrial inverts at all in fact.
I only searched for an hour or so but a link would come in handy if you have one!

 

Just a quote -

could be wrong though

 

 

I'm pretty sure it's illegal to collect them unless you are aboriginal. It's to prevent them being commercially harvested

[DaveJay]

Do you have a link to a list? I'm not doubting you but there are no insects on the South Australian protected species lists. I've been searched for a national list and while I can find a list of recognised endangered species I see it contains a frog species that is not protected in S.A. I'm not sure that endangered equals protected necessarily. I did find ants on lists, but those are NSW government lists and don't apply in S.A. Our laws may be a bit different, I've even emailed the Department of heritage etc etc (formerly the Dept of Wildlife) asking about collecting scorpions in national parks and other government reserves and the answer was collecting inverts was legal, but some collection methods may not be. I think in S.A. insects can be listed as noxious species and so illegal to keep but they don't appear on the protected fauna and flora lists at all, no terrestrial inverts at all in fact.
I only searched for an hour or so but a link would come in handy if you have one!

Just a quote -
could be wrong though

I'm pretty sure it's illegal to collect them unless you are aboriginal. It's to prevent them being commercially harvested

That could be right, especially on Aboriginal land. I doubt they'd let you collect them for sale. A few states are starting to protect inverts because of over collection for the pet trade, I don't think S.A. will be far behind, Flinders Ranges scorpions are under threat for sure, an Adelaide pet shop had adults for $10, how many were collected for that to be a retail price? It's ridiculous.

[DaveJay]

I've uploaded a few ant vids to YouTube lately, I thought I'd post the links here for those that are interested. They're not exactly riveting viewing but I like to watch them!

 

[CoolColJ]

Is your Myrmecia pyriformis a shy and timid critter? I've been hearing from others this species is not that aggressive.

Even colonies with a few workers and brood

[DaveJay]

Is your Myrmecia pyriformis a shy and timid critter? I've been hearing from others this species is not that aggressive.

Even colonies with a few workers and brood

Yeah, she's shy, but then inquisitive too. She has developed a hate for the camera though! As you see in the video with the live cricket once agitated you don't want to go near her though, she really loses control.

[FSTP]

I watched all your videos. They're great. I love watching videos of just ants being ants and doing ant thing, just living thier antly life.

[DaveJay]

I watched all your videos. They're great. I love watching videos of just ants being ants and doing ant thing, just living thier antly life.

At least someone watched them! lol. I have one YouTube subscriber atm, a young keeper from South East Asia who makes better videos than I do!

At this point my videos are simply as you say, ants doing their anty stuff, but as a beginner myself I search for videos that simply just show the species I'm researching so I can see what they are like "in real life".

I'm glad you enjoyed them, I find them calming myself, just watching them go about their business without there being a tutorial.

[Kalidas]

I did enjoy watching the bull ant queen hunting the live cricket. It was very exciting

[FSTP]

 

I watched all your videos. They're great. I love watching videos of just ants being ants and doing ant thing, just living thier antly life.

At least someone watched them! lol. I have one YouTube subscriber atm, a young keeper from South East Asia who makes better videos than I do!

At this point my videos are simply as you say, ants doing their anty stuff, but as a beginner myself I search for videos that simply just show the species I'm researching so I can see what they are like "in real life".

I'm glad you enjoyed them, I find them calming myself, just watching them go about their business without there being a tutorial.

 

Well, now you have two subscribers, lol. Yeah I really like watching videos of just ants being ants without any commentary or music or anything. I have a few short anty videos myself but they're far less interesting then the ones you've made. hopefully when I have more ants I can post some longer more interesting "day in the life of" ant vids

[DaveJay]

I did enjoy watching the bull ant queen hunting the live cricket. It was very exciting

In the end it was bordering on cruelty so I reached in with the tongs and tried to squish the crickets head but I sort of missed because I didn't want the lid open long with her charging around excited but she jumped on it as soon as it hit the ground, scorpions are much quicker to grab prey and sting it but she was dragging it out too long. I posted the two videos that were taken on the same night for comparison, with the dead cricket she was calm but when the live cricket was introduced she was very agitated, to the point of losing coordination and falling over. She's surprisingly clumsy anyway, always slipping or falling yet she can walk up the walls when she pleases.

[DaveJay]

 

 

I watched all your videos. They're great. I love watching videos of just ants being ants and doing ant thing, just living thier antly life.

At least someone watched them! lol. I have one YouTube subscriber atm, a young keeper from South East Asia who makes better videos than I do!

At this point my videos are simply as you say, ants doing their anty stuff, but as a beginner myself I search for videos that simply just show the species I'm researching so I can see what they are like "in real life".

I'm glad you enjoyed them, I find them calming myself, just watching them go about their business without there being a tutorial.

 

Well, now you have two subscribers, lol. Yeah I really like watching videos of just ants being ants without any commentary or music or anything. I have a few short anty videos myself but they're far less interesting then the ones you've made. hopefully when I have more ants I can post some longer more interesting "day in the life of" ant vids

 

I'm not so worried about having a million subscribers, I'm posting the videos to save them really, I've lost data before but I do appreciate your subscription! I was working on a website to bring everything together, I had many pages published but not linked together, meaning they could be found on the internet individually but not as a "website" if you get what I mean. Then the guy who had the server that hosted the site died and I haven't found a new host for my site yet, I was waiting to move house first, but I still paid for another three years of owning the name across all the different online platforms because I will get back to it sooner or later, it's an information type website I'll work on for the rest of my life. 

Edited by DaveJay, December 6 2018 - 10:51 PM.

[DaveJay]

Something I haven't mentioned is I collected 8 Queens over the last couple of months, all 8 have brood but one has a couple of nanitics and may have had more, there's a mouldy pile of something in the tube and I haven't added any food at all because I wasn't expecting workers yet.
I think I just have a variety of Iridomyrmex species although one looks a little different. The queens range in size but all are under 1cm. Some have huge piles of brood, bigger in mass than the queens themselves. It's good to see they are all doing well, I had been expecting some deaths. I put them in test tubes that have a strip of black electrical tape running along them giving the queens a roof for privacy and also so I know which way is up so when I pick them up to look I don't tumble the brood around or put the tube back upside down. I put them all together in an empty cricket tub a month or more ago and have left them alone until now except for adding tubes when I catch more, which hasn't been often as an infection in my leg has had me basically bed ridden for weeks now, I can't wait to get back out anting again, I know I've missed the flights of a few spring flying species already.