Dinosaur Ant Conservation

General discussions about ants

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ucsbants
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2022 2:35 pm

Dinosaur Ant Conservation

Post: # 97406Post ucsbants
Sat Nov 26, 2022 2:44 pm

I go to UCSB and for a class project I am attempting to come up with a conservation initiative for Dinosaur Ants, an endangered ant species in Australia. Some of the issues plaguing these ants today is habitat loss and degradation due to climate change and urbanization. There is also insufficient research on the population and habitat size. I'm struggling to find information about them to be quite honest. I'm here to ask if there's any ideas the community has on the best strategies to conserve these ants as well as any tips you might have for me on my journey to draft a conservation initiative and call-to-action to the Australian government as well as the general public. Thanks!

Antlover41157
Posts: 113
Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2022 10:56 pm
Location: Seattle

Re: Dinosaur Ant Conservation

Post: # 97407Post Antlover41157
Sat Nov 26, 2022 3:14 pm

in terms of reaserch go to ant wiki and wikipedia (actually reliable)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothomyrmecia
https://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Nothomyrmecia

Antlover41157
Posts: 113
Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2022 10:56 pm
Location: Seattle

Re: Dinosaur Ant Conservation

Post: # 97410Post Antlover41157
Sat Nov 26, 2022 7:54 pm

as for the inititive dinosaur ants are approprietly named- they're one of the last of their branch of ants, a living fossil.

SYUTEO
Posts: 1395
Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2019 8:58 am
Location: Malaysia

Re: Dinosaur Ant Conservation

Post: # 97411Post SYUTEO
Sat Nov 26, 2022 9:24 pm

In theory, it is possible to catch the queens during their nuptial flights and release the colony into the wild but I probably won't do this because A) It is probably illegal to catch the ants. B) You may be introducing diseases, parasites or other harmful pathogens that may spread to the other colonies. C) The colony you release would probably just die from other ants unless the colony is big enough (which can take YEARS). And D) You may promote other people with no experience to do this, their closest living relatives are the bull ants from the genus Myrmecia and their venom is one of the most potent in ants and I'm not sure but Nothomyrmecia macrops stings might be as potent. The inexperienced people might accidentally kill them due to not having experience or dig up the colonies and unintentionally kill the queen.

What you can do in my opinion is spread awareness that they are critically endangered, the only thing I fear is that everyone might not care since they're ants.

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