58 replies to this topic

[Kaelwizard]

I voted for North America 100%.

I was going to do that since there are cool species, but we're talking about the best species here lol I mean there are some really cool species in North America, don't get me wrong, but australia has so many awesome species. evidence: coolcolj's journals.

That’s your opinion. I also voted for NA.

[ANTdrew]

The best species to actually keep and have a great experience doing so are from NA. Plus my general philosophy of life is to love my native land.
In terms of diversity or bizarre species, SA probably wins.

[NickAnter]

A lot of South America's special species, such as large Atta are very hard to keep long term, whereas most of Australias incredible species are not so impossible, hence my vote.

[Swirlysnowflake]

 

 

how did you make a blank post...

I have no idea. Maybe some weird glitch? I don’t even remember making a second post.

[Manitobant]

A lot of South America's special species, such as large Atta are very hard to keep long term, whereas most of Australias incredible species are not so impossible, hence my vote.

atta aren’t impossible at all, and the fact that limiting colony size is easy (since they rely on fungus) means that they are actually not that difficult. Just look at cheeto and all the hobbyists with large cephalotes colonies in europe.

[NickAnter]

Oh, I didn't realize limiting colony growth was so easy. Interesting.

 

 

Still, Oecophylla, Ambloyopone, Myrmecia, and TONS of Polyrhacis species really make AU superior in my humble opinion.

[Kaelwizard]

Oh, I didn't realize limiting colony growth was so easy. Interesting.


Still, Oecophylla, Ambloyopone, Myrmecia, and TONS of Polyrhacis species really make AU superior in my humble opinion.

Opisthopsis is superior to all of those.

[AleeGuy]

I Voted south america because Australia lacks many things, such as fungus growers and army ants (they have a few aenictus species but that's it). Also South America isn't just the rainforest, there is also the deserts of patagonia which have stuff like pogonomyrmex and small honeypots like brachymyrmex giardi.

true true Ima change my vote. I completely forgot about SA when voting.

Edited by AleeGuy, February 21 2021 - 7:44 AM.

[AleeGuy]

Oh, I didn't realize limiting colony growth was so easy. Interesting.


Still, Oecophylla, Ambloyopone, Myrmecia, and TONS of Polyrhacis species really make AU superior in my humble opinion.

tbh Oecophylla is harder to keep if we compare to the most sp. in SA.

[KitsAntVa]

A tropical island not bound by north american law where you can get any ant you want shipped to you. That's basically better than any other ant place in the world since you can buy any and every ant. 

[Kaelwizard]

Honestly Europe because of Ant Store. You can get species from any region that way.

Edited by Kaelwizard, February 22 2021 - 7:05 AM.

[Chickalo]

I don't know too much about Asian ant species, but shouldn't Asia be further devided since it's so big?  Maybe like Eastern Asia (China, Korea's, Mongolia, Taiwan, and Japan), Southern Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and the Maldives), South-East Asia (Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam), Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan), West Asia (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen), and then you have Russia.  It's a pretty long list, so I guess you can mash together some of them if they have similar species.

[Kaelwizard]

I don't know too much about Asian ant species, but shouldn't Asia be further devided since it's so big?  Maybe like Eastern Asia (China, Korea's, Mongolia, Taiwan, and Japan), Southern Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and the Maldives), South-East Asia (Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam), Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan), West Asia (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen), and then you have Russia.  It's a pretty long list, so I guess you can mash together some of them if they have similar species.

I switched to Asia purely because it is unspecified so there would be a ton of diversity.

[CheetoLord02]

I voted South America, but really just the Americas in general are absolutely the best. Ants first evolved in North America, and the new world is the only region to have fungus growing ants, which automatically puts them a notch above. On top of that, the Amazon rainforest is not only the oldest rainforest on the planet, but also the first one to get ants, meaning ants essentially grew up alongside the rainforest. The Amazon is likely home to well over 3,000 species of ants that we just haven't discovered. Not to mention the new world has some insane army ants like Nomamyrmex, Labidus, and Eciton. Also keep in mind that all 8 known trimorphic Pheidole species are in North America, including Pheidole rhea, the largest species in the genus. The Americas also have so many other notable figures like Myrmecocystus and Pogonomyrmex.

I would honestly put North America (including Mexico, duh) over Australia. I'd probably even put Africa above Australia because of Dorylus nigricans alone. Australia has great ants, but just because they have a high number of species doesn't mean they're all good. The lack of cool army ants, fungus growers, etc., just knocks that region down so far to me. So personally I'd say South America > North America > Africa > Asia > Australia > Europe. Sounds like heresy, but when Australia was the last region of the world to get ants it only makes sense. They've just had less time to speciate there. You can tell it's bad when they have less subfamilies and only 10 more genera than the US and Canada, not even including Mexico.
 
And before "but muh weaver ants" South America has weaving Camponotus, Africa has Oecophylla longinoda, and Asia has Oecophylla smaragdina and weaving Polyrhachis as well. Weavers are great, but not excluisive enough to be a talking point for Australia.

[NickAnter]

Australia, barring army ants(and Formica, Lasius, etc), has almost all of Asia's diversity, in terms of truly interesting species, plus Myrmecia, Rhytidoponera, Calomyrmex, Pheidole antipodum, Camponotus inflatus, Melophorus bagoti, etc(granted, the latter two cannot be kept legally). I will also edit the poll, to split Asia into East and West, there is quite a difference there. Also, something the Americas do not have is Mystrium, which has the fastest moving part of any animal! I would also argue that most of what makes South America so incredible is not able to really be kept(unless one has access to truly massive amounts of ant brood), and in terms of Pheidole, I would say that Pheidole antipodum might be better than Ph. rhea, because of their massive colony size, and very interesting behavior.

Edited by NickAnter, February 22 2021 - 8:46 AM.

[CheetoLord02]

Australia, barring army ants(and Formica, Lasius, etc), has almost all of Asia's diversity, in terms of truly interesting species, plus Myrmecia, Rhytidoponera, Calomyrmex, Pheidole antipodum, Camponotus inflatus, Melophorus bagoti, etc(granted, the latter two cannot be kept legally). I will also edit the poll, to split Asia into East and West, there is quite a difference there. Also, something the Americas do not have is Mystrium, which has the fastest moving part of any animal! I would also argue that most of what makes South America so incredible is not able to really be kept(unless one has access to truly massive amounts of ant brood), and in terms of Pheidole, I would say that Pheidole antipodum might be better than Ph. rhea, because of their massive colony size, and very interesting behavior.

Pheidole antipodum is hot garbage compared to P. rhea. P. rhea get colonies into the 6 digits and have larger majors plus a true supermajor caste, and their minors are over 2x the size. Besides, P. antipodum isn't even very good compared to some of the better Pheidole across the world, like Pheidole fimbriata from South America or Pheidole crassinoda from Africa. Besides, if we're listing cool genera of ants, I'll take a shot for North America alone:

Acanthostichus Acromyrmex Acropyga Apterostigma Atta Azteca Camponotus (subgenus myrmothrix, sericeiventris, etc.) Dolichoderus Ectatomma Eciton Gnamptogenys Leptogenys Liometopum Labidus Manica Myrmecocystus Mycetomoellerius Megalomyrmex Neivamyrmex Nomamyrmex Novomessor Neoponera Odontomachus Pheidole (all 8 trimorphic species) Pogonomyrmex (wheeleri, badius, etc.) Polyergus Pseudomyrmex Pachycondyla Platythyrea Solenopsis (geminata, aurea, etc.) Trachymyrmex Thaumatomyrmex 

And that's just what I think is cool, it's not even including every notable or unique genus. Australia does have many unique ants, and considering the quality of life there compared to other regions it's a great place to live and also collect ants, but looking at its overall fauna alone it just doesn't live up to the hype that it has.

[NickAnter]

The sad thing about South America is, unless there is some governmental miracle, its going to forever be a massive mess, thereby making proper collection difficult.

[Barristan]

Antarctica because it has the word "ant" in it.

[NickAnter]

Both the Americas and Australia have 3 genera of honeypot ants(Prenolepis, Myrmecocystus, Leptomyrmex), (Melophorus, Camponotus, Leptomyrmex), so Id say they are tied there.

 

In terms of ants with interesting behaviors, such as weaving, both regions have wevaer ants, so Id say there is a tie there(Australia has many, many, more however).

 

In terms of Army Ants, the Americas win, hands down.

 

In terms of the largest ants... the Americas have the largest species, however, Australia has MANY species that are incredibly large(Myrmecia), but Ill give that one to the Americas.

 

In terms of diversity, Australia wins(leaving an asterisk by this one, since it could change). Don't know how many species are in South America(insufficient collecting), and as we know, scientific predictions are often wrong. *

 

In terms of ease of keeping, Id say Australia wins, most of it's interesting ans are far easier to keep from my understanding than those in the Americas.

 

So, overall, its a tie by those categories, in my humble opinion.

[Ants_Dakota]

I voted for North America 100%.

i will stand with you, ANTdrew!