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Post by crockatt on Apr 22, 2013 11:59:32 GMT
Thanks for that, I have one of those and use the macro lens, the I 4 must have a better camera than my android phone or do you set your phone camera to a certain setting also, I would love to view my ants in such detail.
Sent from my GT-I8150 using proboards
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Post by adamjames20 on Apr 22, 2013 12:05:49 GMT
Hello mate , all I do is place the lens onto my Iphone and select the camera icon , then all I do is choose to video or take a picture. I'm assuming the iphone camera is a rather good one as the lens just magnifies things for it. The shots of the whole colony are taken with just the iphone camera , no lenses.
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Post by crockatt on Apr 22, 2013 12:16:54 GMT
Thanks, thats what I do, your help is much appreciated though.
Sent from my GT-I8150 using proboards
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Post by adamjames20 on Apr 22, 2013 13:06:12 GMT
your welcome mate
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Post by adamjames20 on Aug 6, 2013 6:55:51 GMT
Hello guys , its been a while since I updated on my Harpegnathos but mine have they done extremely well. After the first few virgin queens emerged a small group of males emerged too, eventually there were about 17 queens to 15 males. Over the course of a few weeks these alates made several trips into the foraging area where they flapped about and explored. By the end of the second week from emerging the males were being seen deposited in the trash area and most the queens all slowly lost there wings and stayed in the colony. A few were seen dead and being carried by the workers onto the trash heap. The colony's population now includes about 30+ workers and at least 12 queens. It is not known if they have successfully mated as I did not see any copulation taking place but the egg production has increased drastically and as a result the larvae and cocoon count, Currently 24 cocoons await emergence in one of the nest chambers and the first few that have emerged have all been workers. If the queens hadn't mated I'd assume there would be another appearance of males. A worker having a good clean Workers sharing a cricket : ) Population explosion , hopefully due to the new queens A newly hatched worker , Pale and taking its first few steps.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Aug 6, 2013 7:25:40 GMT
Great update Adam, and I love the new pics and video. Are these ants easy to keep with regards to climate, temperature, feeding and nesting material?
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Post by adamjames20 on Aug 6, 2013 8:52:03 GMT
Hello Wood ant , to be honest they are rather finicky to settle in. they prefer a warm temperature about 25-26C , I have only kept mine in my soil painted plaster nests and my colony has thrived. Feeding they prefer live insects as they need to hunt. Humidity wise they are rather forgiving in that mine have dried out on several occasions and it hasn't seemed to bother them. but as soon as I noticed I rehydrated the nests. The only thing that lets them down is they are easily stressed, if so they tend to stop hunting and eat all there brood , also they are extremely susceptible to mites so all live food must be thoroughly inspected. Once settled and doing well other then they need feeding every day they are fairly easy. Hope that answers your questions mate
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 6, 2013 9:39:59 GMT
Amazing journal Adam, surprised I never saw it until now. Hope that some of those new queens mated, because it'll be great to see the resulting population explosion.
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Post by adamjames20 on Aug 6, 2013 9:50:13 GMT
Cheers mate , it will indeed , I'm thinking about separating a queen with two workers away from the main colony. If I do it be good to see if I can get a second colony up and running : )
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Post by Jonzii on Aug 6, 2013 17:22:25 GMT
Great update as always Adam. Must admit, I think these girls look quite intimidating although stunning at the same time. Glad they are doing well for you mate.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 6, 2013 18:07:38 GMT
I like how you can actually count the eggs of this species, as opposed to the clumps of minuscule eggs produced by others.
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Post by adamjames20 on Aug 7, 2013 6:36:58 GMT
Hello Guys cheers for the comments : ), They are intimidating a little , they can actually sting but as of yet I haven't been stung so not quite sure how painful it is lol. That's the thing I like is the eggs being rather big , you can easily count them, you can even watch them hatch and see the larvae moving inside near to hatching : p
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Post by Miles on Jan 19, 2014 6:48:49 GMT
Hi Adam,
After watching a number of your videos and surfing through your journals, I have concluded that your plaster nests are one-of-a kind in terms of the soil painting. Do the ants ever remove the soil from the walls of the plaster?
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Post by deansie on Jan 19, 2014 22:03:45 GMT
Great journal Adam, interesting learning about another ant species
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Post by adamjames20 on Jan 27, 2014 7:18:38 GMT
Hello Miles , sorry late reply , been away on hols. No they don't seem to remove the soil, It seems to work great in my colonies. I too have not seen soil painting of plaster nests, but it works a treat Cheers Deansie , will update this journal soon. Adam
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