24 replies to this topic

[DaveJay]

I thought I'd make a thread for my various outings, most will be in the Riverland or Murray Mallee, centred around the River Murray in South Australia so I'll open with a few maps.

 

[DaveJay]

The most recent was a trip to Blanchetown, a small town on the banks of the Murray River in South Australia.

I only went for a couple of walks looking for ants to photograph, once in the early afternoon and once in the early evening after dark.

Not many of my photos were usable and I haven't sorted through them all yet but I thought I'd better start!

Firstly a few pictures of where I went walking, not a huge area but I spotted about 6 ant species I think.

And across the river just to give you an idea of the area.

 

 

[DaveJay]

I was very disappointed when I saw these photos. I saw two ants sporting vivid orange on their gasters but it doesn't show much at all in the pictures. One ant was obviously a minor worker as it was perhaps 8mm and thin whereas another was much more thickset and was easily 10mm. I include some photos that aren't up to par simply because I got so few usable pics. Usually I get good results using a flash outdoors on overcast days but these are disappointing, also as soon as the first flash went off both ants took off at full speed so it was all I could do to keep them in frame. I wish now that I'd caught one to photograph in the cabin. 

Anyway....

[DaveJay]

I went back at night to see what I could find. I found a small ant and followed it to its' hole, once I "flashed" it ants came out of the hole and started to swarm in alarm, maybe they thought it was lightning? I'll post those pics later.

I also came across one lone assumed Camponotus consobrinus. Unfortunately I overestimated my flashes ability to override the red torch beam so the pics are tainted.

[Major]

This seems like a pretty cool thread. Will be following this to see what happens. What camera+lens do you use?

[DaveJay]

This seems like a pretty cool thread. Will be following this to see what happens. What camera+lens do you use?

These were taken with a Nikon coolpix point and shoot camera which while it doesn't take macro pics of the quality I'd like usually takes better pictures than this! Some of my reptile and even scorpion pics look great even printed out at 8x8", I have quite a few of my own pictures framed on the walls. I've always been a bit disappointed with its macro functions but I find taking pictures from 4 to 6 inches away then cropping them works well usually, even with very small scorpions. Ants are by far the smallest things I've tried to focus it on and they don't sit still like my previous subjects! I hadn't expected great pictures being that the ants were running away very fast and I was taking pictures blindly while chasing them with the camera but it's the lack of colour that surprised me, the orange/gold on the gasters was so vivid it's hard to describe yet it hardly shows at all in the photos.
I do have a "crossover" Fuji camera I bought that has much better optical zoom but both cameras are 16mp and generally take about the same quality pictures so I've never really learned how to use it properly to be honest. I like that the Nikon fits in my back pocket whereas I have trouble fitting the Fuji in the glovebox of the car so I tend to grab the Nikon when I want a camera. Now that I want to take pictures of fast moving ants I think I need some lessons on getting the most out of the Fuji!

[Major]

Which Coolpix do you have?

[DaveJay]

Which Coolpix do you have?

It's after 3.30 am atm so I won't double check but off the top of my head S6200 sounds right. 16mp 10x optical zoom.
It can do a great job on occasion but it's not great for moving subjects. I'm really just using it on auto , I'm sure in the right hands it could do better but there's no way it works like the prototype in the official video review.
I like it though, the lens is scratched through the kids using it while drunk and dropping it and if I see another I'll buy it but it is time to take some photography lessons and upgrade.

[Major]

Which Coolpix do you have?

It's after 3.30 am atm so I won't double check but off the top of my head S6200 sounds right. 16mp 10x optical zoom.
It can do a great job on occasion but it's not great for moving subjects. I'm really just using it on auto , I'm sure in the right hands it could do better but there's no way it works like the prototype in the official video review.
I like it though, the lens is scratched through the kids using it while drunk and dropping it and if I see another I'll buy it but it is time to take some photography lessons and upgrade.

Maybe I'm reading this wrong but your kids got drunk and dropped your lens?!

[DaveJay]

Which Coolpix do you have?

It's after 3.30 am atm so I won't double check but off the top of my head S6200 sounds right. 16mp 10x optical zoom.
It can do a great job on occasion but it's not great for moving subjects. I'm really just using it on auto , I'm sure in the right hands it could do better but there's no way it works like the prototype in the official video review.
I like it though, the lens is scratched through the kids using it while drunk and dropping it and if I see another I'll buy it but it is time to take some photography lessons and upgrade.

Maybe I'm reading this wrong but your kids got drunk and dropped your lens?!

Yeah, on a camping trip when they were in their late teens (legal to drink at 18 here), "kids" was probably misleading.

[DaveJay]

I just returned from another trip to the Riverland, we stayed at my daughters' house in a small town between Berri and Bamera this time.
Photos mostly taken at Katarapko national park near Winkie (I'll add the aboriginal name of the park when I can copy and paste!) and various places on the way home.
I saw a few species of ants, one Camponotus with white dots on the gaster which I remember seeing in research but I can't find anywhere on the net now!
I also saw the orange/gold gaster ants again and got better pictures and some video just in case.
Belinda found some amazing looking beetles, obviously of the same species but one larger than the other and the patterns were slightly different. They were in rotted wood but they seemed to be the only two in there, along with a very nice spider. I kept the beetles, and some of the wood, hopefully I can I.D. them and care for them properly, beetles usually easy but some have very short life spans.
I saw massive colonies of what must be "Meat Ants", the small limestone gravel they excavate can cover areas of 10' x 10' or possibly more with multiple entrances of different sizes, each with a guard in attendance just inside the hole. While I was taking photos the closest guards would run towards me in a straight line, come within millimeters of my foot then run back to their posts, the other defenders would then swarm out and follow the trails left by the door guards to attack! Within minutes a bare area of gravel with no ants can be covered with thousands of ants looking for something to attack!
The same thing happened on the way home, I parked in a cleared area and we went to inspect some holes in the bush, when we got back to the car it was surrounded by ants, there were none visible when we got out of the car, we had our eyes on the ground and didn't see any but apparently I'd parked on a nest larger than our old 80s Ford Falcon by a long way! Absolutely huge colonies, unbelievable!
On Thursday I lifted a piece of slate and saw medium/large black ants and brood directly under the stone. I put the stone back and caused minimum disturbance, Friday I poured about a litre of water over the stone letting it run down all sides. I figured I may have upset the humidity in the nest lifting the stone and seeing it was very dry in the area I thought it might bring the Queen to the surface if there was more moisture directly under the stone. Over the 5 days I looked for ant activity around the stone at different times of day and night and saw no movement at all. Today (Tuesday) I lifted the stone and scooped out the chambers with brood into a tub. There was a winged ant with the brood, whether it is the Queen or not I don't know, it seemed too small but I only saw it for a split second when I lifted the stone. Scraping under the hole I'd made revealed no ants at all and no sign of tunnels so I'm hoping that I got the whole colony Queen and all with the initial scoop. I then caught every stray ant I saw until there were none left to be seen. This was just before we left and I only got home an hour or so ago so I haven't had a chance to see what I caught yet, fingers crossed.
Pictures to come, I just thought I'd update while it's all fresh.

Edited by DaveJay, August 30 2018 - 4:17 AM.

[CoolColJ]

Those black Camponotus with the gold bum are Camponotus aeneopilosus, which you have.

Edited by CoolColJ, August 30 2018 - 4:18 AM.

[DaveJay]

I updated my Journal to include a more in-depth description, but here's a couple of pictures.

Where I found the colony I collected.

The "scoop"

Workers

The winged ants' gaster, Queen? Male?

 

Tentative I.D. (by myself) Rhytidoponera metallica.

If so apparently they have gamerates and "queens are relatively insignificant and are rarely produced in colonies." (Wikipedia)

 

http://www.formicult...-journal/page-3

[DaveJay]

Those black Camponotus with the gold bum are Camponotus aeneopilosus, which you have.

Sorry, I was getting the previous post ready when you posted so I missed it.

Yeah, I have Camponotus aeneopilosus, in this thread I've just said Gold Bum when posting using the phone rather than misspell aeneopilosus, slack I know!  

The C. aeneopilosus I have are much smaller and lack the vivid orange of the ones I've seen in the wild, the minor workers when they comer would have to be much bigger than the nanitics to be the same species but I can't work out what else the ones at the river could be so I guess they must be Camponotus aeneopilosus, it might be a regional variation thing. I took video as well as pics so once I put the video up I'll get you to have a look. I had intended to catch one next time I saw them but I didn't want to this time because I wasn't able to return it once I finished with it, only an ant I know but it didn't feel right.

[CoolColJ]

Well nanitics sometimes lack the usual colours of the regulars and are 2mm smaller on the average
Also indoors the ants will lack the pop from Sun and clouds.
Most ants will appear black indoors vs in the sun, where you see their true colours

The gold on their gaster is from hairs, so the direction of the light will change it's appearance

Edited by CoolColJ, August 30 2018 - 4:59 AM.

[DaveJay]

Well nanitics sometimes lack the usual colours of the regulars and are 2mm smaller on the average
Also indoors the ants will lack the pop from Sun and clouds.
Most ants will appear black indoors vs in the sun, where you see their true colours

The gold on their gaster is from hairs, so the direction of the light will change it's appearance

Yeah, I noticed that from my first photos, they look like mine do, the flash didn't capture the colour at all.

[DaveJay]

These are Meat Ants, Iridomyrmex sp. for sure, but I'm not sure that they are Iridomyrmex purpureus, the ones we saw on the Karoonda Road in the Mallee had much more vivid purple colour, these seemed dull, definitely close though.

One guard was just inside each hole, the extra one was a scout returning.

They became very agitated so I retreated. The nest looks like it is a mound of dumped gravel with multiple holes of multiple sizes in it but it is the ants bringing the gravel to the surface, the topsoil here is sand mostly.

In this photo I stuck my foot into view for size comparison. Remember this is a size 12 shoe held off the ground in front of the camera, a perspective that makes it look larger in comparison to the mound than it actually is! There were larger nest areas on the sides of the road on the way home!

 

[DaveJay]

I'm 99% sure these are Iridomyrmex purpureus, they showed a vivid purple colour overall but there were variations.

 

The gravel patches seem man made but it is all the ants bringing stones to the surface, some patches were enormous, twice the length of our falcon and twice the width. The smaller patches look like someone has dumped a couple of shovels of small gravel in the middle of the sandy areas, the larger patches look like a trailer load or more of small gravel has been spread to make a parking area or clearing to picnic on but then you realise that the gravel is surrounding ant holes and has expanded the area in that way.

[DaveJay]

I have a few more ant pics to sort, but here's a few random pics.

 

I bought some of these "Queen Bee Catchers" out of curiosity, They work really well for lots of small "bugs", even my slightly squeamish daughter was catching grasshoppers, spiders and ants with them. They are quite long so your hand is not near the critter, you just put it over them, they climb up and you put the stopper in, because it's clear they don't immediately bolt for the opening. Very handy, easier than using a test tube, worth a dollar or two to try out.

 

I'm not sure about how well non ant pictures are tolerated, I can remove them if asked but here is one of two beetles my wife found. I have better pics but I noticed the beetle out while taking ant pics. Both beetles have slightly different patterns and size but obviously the same species, this photo does not do the colours justice but it'll do. They're leaf beetles but I'm not having much luck pinning down the species as yet.

 

and just a little Urodacus yaschenkoi I trapped last year in the same area.

 

[DaveJay]

Those black Camponotus with the gold bum are Camponotus aeneopilosus, which you have.

 

 

Well nanitics sometimes lack the usual colours of the regulars and are 2mm smaller on the average
Also indoors the ants will lack the pop from Sun and clouds.
Most ants will appear black indoors vs in the sun, where you see their true colours

The gold on their gaster is from hairs, so the direction of the light will change it's appearance

I got a few better pictures this time although not many! They just don't keep still! You'll see when I post the footage I took, hopefully tonight. Looking at pictures of mine then these I have to say they're the same species but the size difference is a lot, I just can't see the workers from the Queen I have being the size of the smallest ones seen at the river but a size difference between populations found in different areas is not unusual at all in inverts in my experience.

 

Anyway, initially I just saw one ant carrying something, until I saw the photos I didn't realise it was another ant. I followed it a bit trying to get pics and more and more appeared, the longer I stayed near the base of the River Red Gum flashing them and taking photos and videos the more agitated they became and the more their numbers grew but they were running aimlessly looking for the danger but not seeing my shoes as a problem, it was the camera they were running from, I don't think they realised the two were connected! 

Just as I was leaving I looked and saw this, I'm not sure if this is the same ant or another found the dead ant but it was when I got back to where I started that I saw it.

Edited by DaveJay, September 3 2018 - 3:11 AM.