spiny-ant - Tumblr blog

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Golden retriever puppy

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when people say "ok but x bug has no benefit to nature" I bet they can't even name 5 facts about the bug they're shitting on. so how could they Possibly know what its function is in the environment and if it's "useless" or not

wasps being the perfect example, I still get people saying "oh bees are cute and pollinate :) yay. but WASPS ARE EVIL and they don't contribute ANYTHING!!!" and it's like buddy. wasps pollinate too. they also control spider populations. they do a lot of great valuable things. but even if they didn't, they're still worthy of being here. I see SO much hatred toward wasps and I wish people would try to learn a little more about them.

I'm mainly talking about paper wasps here because these are common ones we run into in daily life and most commonly deemed "aggressive". but wasps have body language. and if you learn to read this language and learn how to properly act around them, things will go a lot better for you! wasps can be curious creatures and they may come up to observe you, especially if you're wearing something brightly colored. this can be startling for sure, but my best advice is to just be still, DO NOT SWAT or wave your arms. try to just back away or sidestep so it loses interest and leaves. swatting is just gonna make them feel as if they are being attacked and increase your chances of being stung.

many stings happen due to unfortunate but accidental circumstances. unknowingly getting too close to a nest, stepping on a wasp on accident, one getting stuck in clothing, etc. I got stung once while gardening, went to pull a weed and the wasp was on it, so I grabbed her without knowing and she stung me because she was scared. this doesn't mean "oh wasps are AGGRESSIVE and EVIL" it means you stumbled into an unfortunate situation where the wasps felt threatened and defensive. instead of being like "FUCK all wasps" go forward trying to learn about common nesting areas, be wary of holes in the ground, wear gloves while gardening, and if you do have to be around a nest, try not to make a lot of noise. if the nest absolutely needs removed, call a professional.

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Breaking Tulip News!

This is Tulip, the median carpenter ant worker. Today she enjoyed some wet cat food. She really liked it a lot! She was the first to try it and now all her sisters are digging in.

I can’t seem to find Pepper, the ant with the green spot, I think she might have cleaned the paint off (she was very dusty) — stay tuned for more important Tulip updates.

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Only one sister could be queen.

Three years ago she murdered her sister. Her sister thought they would be queens together but Penta had her own ideas. She has only five legs and nearly 2000 daughters who I manage with a modified vacuum cleaner (it’s an automatic asperator.) I’m almost done moving them into their new nest. It’s been so much work. I’ve only killed four ants so far. Please don’t tell Penta. She is not patient with incompetence.

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Golden tailed spiny ant stimboard!!!!

✨-✨-✨|✨-🐜-✨|✨-✨-✨

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Sometimes the little ant you see on the sidewalk has been to places and knows about things you will never know.

At night she travels down, deeper than your basement, deeper than the grave, deep as the deepest roots of the great trees, where the earth is always warm.

She may know of caverns and pockets of life, scale insects in root-lined galleries, hidden streams, seams of minerals.

For an ant? Secret riches beyond the wildest sugar dreams.

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My touys

One of the reasons I like polyrhachis ants so much is they all look like plastic figures

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One of the reasons I like polyrhachis ants so much is they all look like plastic figures

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Imagine a ant

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A leaf ball full of angry old ladies who want to beat you up.

Did you know weaver ants have nursing homes? They are unlike any nursing home you have ever seen. Satellite nests are where older workers move as they near the end of their lives. But, old ants are the opposite of old humans. The older an ant gets, the more risks she will take. So, if the weaver ant territory is under attack the older ants in these satellite nests with rush out aggressively and throw themselves into battle. They aren't worried about taking a few risks. When ants are young they are very shy and cautious. In many species their first jobs are inside of the nest. As they grow older they move to jobs with higher and higher levels of risk.

A new young ant represents a huge investment by the colony: the food and labor it took to grow her from a tiny egg. If she were to die on her first day that's a loss. If she dies after living most of her life, building tunnels, raising more ants, collecting food, it's a gain. So, the oldest ants in the colony are the most bold, and do things like exploring new territory and attacking big powerful intruders (like you! don't mess with weaver ants, they will bite and spray you with acid to make the bite burn)

This is the opposite of humans. Humans are most reckless when we have just become adults. I think the big difference is we live so long that our bodies deteriorate. Worker ants seem to die in their prime, just as agile as the young, but they have memorized the local map. Ants do "learn" as they grow older. And this may be another reason for this pattern. By slowly expanding from the nest ... maybe it keeps young ants from getting lost? IDK And maybe it's a kind of filter, the most robust ants making it to the nursing home to fight.

These differences aren't selective of course. Just saying that an ant who gets killed doing simple tasks near the nest entrance might not be cut out for the "elder army." Even with limited genetics there is a lot of variation in ants due to how the brood is fed, nest conditions.

Imagine if you played loud music by a nursing home and all the old ladies came out and beat you down! (I think carpenter ants might do this "old ant's home of violence" too...hmmm)

Based on chapter 1 of "The Guests of Ants: How Myrmecophiles Interact with Their Hosts" by Hölldobler &. Kwapich where they talk about satellite nests for old weaver ants. Plus my own experience with carpenter ants.

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Divine Entomology ✨🐝🪲🦋💕

Artwork: Oddarette

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big fan of bug names that sound like they were given by the bug's bitter ex

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Polyrhachis Demangei are the most ant looking ants I've ever seen

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they’re here! it’s them! the

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Me n @/futurebird rule the myrmecology tag with a tiny iron ant fist

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Is your ant getting enough sleep?

How can you tell if an ant is sleepy? they can’t blink so you might be boring your ant to death with a long-winded story and not even know it. Or maybe their room isn't comfy enough and they can't sleep well. Ants hate to complain. Solution?

Observe the antennae!