Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48574360

Points: 3

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The basic thing is just knowing what you need to start with, and really that's : - knowing the local species, what they look like, when they take their nuptial flights - buy some test tubes, and always keep with you a test tube with some cotton to block the opening - walk with your head down. Notice the ants. Try to see where the entrances to their nests are. If you can, try to id them (or take a picture and ask on discord)

What you're looking for is a queen that just mated. Sometimes they still have their wings on, most of the time they don't. They really, really big ants, at first everytime I saw a big ant I thought it was a queen, but the first time you see one you'll have no doubt about it. Look at pictures of winged males as well, you can see a lot of them flying around during mating but you need to distinguish them from females.

Then once you've captured a queen (I recommend 2 or 3 of them), you transfer them to another test tube filled 2/3 with water, blocked by a cotton ball, then closed with another cotton ball. Put the test tubes in a completely dark, silent place, where you'll keep them for a few months. During this time try to never bother them, don't look at the tubes, don't move them. This is the founding stage, of the queens are fertile and have been fecundated, and they're not stressed by the whole operation, they'll lay eggs. After a few weeks the first workers will hatch and that's when you should connect the tube to an outworld so you can feed them without disturbing them in their nest/test tube!

So really buy some test tube, read up on ants and look down, and you're set for a few months!

I fell into the rabbit hole of types of formicariums, species identification. I settled on my "favourite" specy that I wanted to have that was endemic to my region. I bought a queen + 3 workers from a reputed seller, but they waited a week before sending the test tube and when they sent it it the queen was dead on arrival :(

So I decided to just look for signs of nuptials flights in my city and look for a queen myself, it was a really fun summer! Always looking at the pavement when walking outside, keeping test tubes in my bag, taking long walks in the morning after it rained because it was the ideal conditions for some of the species I wanted.

In the end, one afternoon I found that dozens and dozens of queens had taken their nuptials flights all over the city, it was awesome to notice this for the first time.

So I got a queen of one of the most numerous and unremarkable species in the region, it's been two years and it's been really fun. A really not that expensive hobby! If even if you're not into diy (like I am) you need only a test tube to get started, and then later when the first workers arrive a foraging area that can just be a plastic container.

Really recommend it, and I'm not interested at all in buying exotic species. Sure, leafcutter ants look awesome, but I wouldn't keep a snake in my house either!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47125420

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46293877

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

The other thing I'm waiting for is search results ordered by date instead of relevance. When I'm searching for a picture in particular I know was taken 3 years ago, and search keywords to find it, it's impossible to find this specific photo because the ordering seem random

So it's a startup, valued at 10 billion?! How exactly do they plan to make money?

Seriously, could anything be more 21st-century? Resurrecting extinct animal species (ones that supposedly went extinct naturally, mind you, not because of humans – what's the point then?) just to reintroduce them into parks and sell carbon credits.

> Keyte added that her team was still a long way from bringing back the dodo. For one thing, the methods for growing and manipulating the embryonic precursors of avian sperm and eggs in a lab setting have been developed for only two birds: the chicken and, recently, the goose. Keyte said, “It’s been almost twenty years since culture conditions for the chicken were established, and those culture conditions have not worked for other bird species, even ones that are really closely related, like quail.” She added that, despite the dearth of related research, her team was getting better at growing the sperm-and-egg precursors in birds: “We’ve gotten to the point where we feel like we can start doing some migration assays”—a technique for studying how the cells in an early embryo begin to differentiate. Once the researchers got the basic method for growing bird cells down, they could use the technology not just to develop a dodo but also to help replenish populations of endangered birds. The team had already identified some species that could use the help.