144 replies to this topic

[OhNoNotAgain]

EDIT Oct. 2020: Added Myrmecocystus mexicanus (real honeypots) on page 3.
EDIT: July 2020: Added Liometopum occidentale to this journal on page 3.
EDIT: June 2020: I posted noebl1's Prenolepis imparis quick care instructions on page 2 of this journal.

EDIT: March 2023: RIP Myrmecocystus mexicanus. No immediate plans to get more.


Today I got (bought) my locally collected Prenolepis imparis queens in two test tubes.
I know they are notorious for dying. They also are best left alone for 3 months.
Here's the recipe.




(Schroedinger's ants....)

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, March 22 2023 - 5:24 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.4.10

Schrödinger's Ants update.

I collapsed the waveform today.

Okay I should've have but I checked on them.

The queens appear to be alive. One test tube the cotton has turned black, the other is still white.

Both tubes have a tiny tiny pile of eggs.

I put them back....

Who knows, maybe they will eat those tiny pile of eggs out of stress.

 

They are back to being Schrödinger's Ants.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, April 10 2020 - 9:41 AM.

[AntsDakota]

The notion that 9 out of 10 queens die in captivity is completely false. Whoever started that meant in the wild, not captivity. And I don’t believe they need to be left alone for that long. This guy checked his once a week: https://www.ohioants...mparis-journal/

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.5.5.

Just a note that I have now checked twice on the Schroedinger's ants, last time a day or two ago. (Previous time I noted in previous entry.)

All 6 appear to still be alive(?) but "clean" test tube has a smaller pile of eggs and the other "dirty" tube may have had some very very small larvae or at least a bigger pile. I'm not sure - this time around I didn't look too closely.

 

I'm a little concerned because the normally quiet room they are kept in has recently started having more activity (read: small human playing with stuff right next to their plastic bin). There's NOwhere else I can keep them that's any quieter or darker, so I'm hoping they don't get too freaked out.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, May 5 2020 - 8:20 AM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.5.21

 

Peeked at the Prenolepis imparis again, and this time I was not dumb and took pics/videos without touching the tubes, then covered them up and closed the drawer again. Looks like they have larvae. The tube I thought was doing better seems to have a smaller brood pile now, but I can't really see well. I think 4 of the 6 queens are definitely still alive. Not sure about the other two. Pics of each tube just for reference. I'm not exactly sure when they were caught, but if we call it end of Jan/beginning of February 2020 then it's been almost 4 months.

 

 

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, May 21 2020 - 11:17 AM.

[ANTdrew]

What are Schrodinger’s ants?

[Temperateants]

What are Schrodinger’s ants?

It has to do with the Schrodinger's cat thing, I think.

[NickAnter]

Schrodinger's cat is basically just the idea that unless something is inspected, you can never know its state. Really something that is super obvious, but because it sounds cool people think it must be some highly interesting phenomenon.

[TheMicroPlanet]

Schrodinger's cat is basically just the idea that unless something is inspected, you can never know its state. Really something that is super obvious, but because it sounds cool people think it must be some highly interesting phenomenon.

I think the theorom goes further than that. It basically says something isn't real until it's observed; that it's only possibilites until, upon observation, the wave functions governing these possibilites "collapse" into one, certain reality (that's at least my understanding of it). I, for one, am kind of skeptical of that idea, but i'll keep an open mind to possibilities (ba dum tsss)...

[ANTdrew]

Wow, never heard of this until today. Thanks for enlightening me.

[TheMicroPlanet]

Wow, never heard of this until today. Thanks for enlightening me.

Quantum physics is one of those things you love and hate at the same time, sort of like superposition (ba dum tsssX2)

[OhNoNotAgain]

Here's a reasonable Wikipedia article:

 

https://en.wikipedia...hrödinger's_cat

 

The parallel with the ants is I didn't know if the ants were alive or dead until I checked on them, and by some interpretations, by checking on them I was collapsing the waveform out of the "maybe dead, maybe alive" state, forcing reality to pick one or the other.

 

Just a nerd joke, really ... because Prenolepis imparis are notorious for liking to die. Though maybe honeypots take that title from what I hear.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, May 21 2020 - 5:29 PM.

[MinigunL5]

Here's a reasonable Wikipedia article:
 
https://en.wikipedia...hrödinger's_cat
 
The parallel with the ants is I didn't know if the ants were alive or dead until I checked on them, and by some interpretations, by checking on them I was collapsing the waveform out of the "maybe dead, maybe alive" state, forcing reality to pick one or the other.
 
Just a nerd joke, really ... because Prenolepis imparis are notorious for liking to die. Though maybe honeypots take that title from what I hear.

From my limited knowledge this is kinda how the wave form thing and superposition works. There is a wave(that is calculated from the quantum state) and any point from the center has a probability of coming to fruition when it inspected. These probabilities can be calculated with the shroedinger equation. The probability is the square of the amplitude of a part of the wave. So when you make a measurement the wave function collapses and the probability of measuring an outcome is the amplitude  of that outcome squared.
 
This ant thing is a bit different than the famous Schroedingers cat experiment. In the experiment the state of the cat on measurement is dependent on if an atom decayed or not. In this case its just if it died or not. 
While you are not looking at it is in a superposition of both dead and alive. Although it is not really entangled with any one thing.
Although I'm no expert I hope that this helped explain superposition. I like "Schroedingers ant" 

that's the equation(I don't understand it tbh)

Edited by MinigunL5, May 21 2020 - 7:57 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

Yes, but whether the atom decayed or not seemed kind of analogous to whatever random event causes a death-prone queen ant to die or not. 

I mean we don't know why ants just up and die for no reason. Could be quantum mechanical for all we know. Maybe some random particle decays and POOF, dead queen. 

[MinigunL5]

Yes, but whether the atom decayed or not seemed kind of analogous to whatever random event causes a death-prone queen ant to die or not. 

I mean we don't know why ants just up and die for no reason. Could be quantum mechanical for all we know. Maybe some random particle decays and POOF, dead queen. 

If we consider parallel universes. There could be one universe where you queen is dead     

If parallel universes were the case. Schroedinger's cat would be alive in one universe and dead in the other. They would split upon measurement.

Edited by MinigunL5, May 22 2020 - 4:41 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

 

If we consider parallel universes. There could be one universe where you queen is dead     

If parallel universes were the case. Schroedinger's cat would be alive in one universe and dead in the other. They would split upon measurement.

 

 

Oh yeah, I know. I've always hated Many Worlds theory.    And I always wondered about if a cat ought to be counted as an observer in and of itself. As Dr. Google says, cats are fairly classical in any case.

[ANTdrew]

Ya’ll lost me a long time back.

[TheMicroPlanet]

 

 

If we consider parallel universes. There could be one universe where you queen is dead     

If parallel universes were the case. Schroedinger's cat would be alive in one universe and dead in the other. They would split upon measurement.

 

 

Oh yeah, I know. I've always hated Many Worlds theory.    And I always wondered about if a cat ought to be counted as an observer in and of itself. As Dr. Google says, cats are fairly classical in any case.

 

Makes you wonder what qualifies something as an observer. Self-awareness? Consciousness? Being able to process information?

[MinigunL5]

 

 

 

If we consider parallel universes. There could be one universe where you queen is dead     

If parallel universes were the case. Schroedinger's cat would be alive in one universe and dead in the other. They would split upon measurement.

 

 

Oh yeah, I know. I've always hated Many Worlds theory.    And I always wondered about if a cat ought to be counted as an observer in and of itself. As Dr. Google says, cats are fairly classical in any case.

 

Makes you wonder what qualifies something as an observer. Self-awareness? Consciousness? Being able to process information?

 

That part has always made me curious. Like how does making a measurement change things so drastically. I've know a lot more abou this subject than I used to. It's amazing how things function at the quantum scale.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.5.29

Soooooo yesterday (the 28th) I checked on the ants again, and found one of the tubes had cotton and water turning PINK. (I thought purple until I looked at it in better light.)

 

After posting here on FC about it, I connected the pink test tube to a new test tube and left the pink tube in direct sunlight.

I didn't tap them in because I didn't want to lose brood, and I didn't want whatever spores raining down into the fresh tube.

 

 

Because "Prenos are sensitive" and they hate light and so on I thought they might move fast.

 

Nope.

I left them out all night and into today and still they haven't moved.