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I don't mean to be rude Necturus but comparing keeping ants in the light to keeping a dog under water is a stupid comparison.
I believe the questions I've asked to be valid.
I must disagree. It was proved many times, ants in captivity lived as normal in day light. Their instinct is quite flexible, and the ants which aren't used to darkness don't associate light with danger. If you put ants into nest in which they can dig, they often dig also near the glass, and new corridors which THEY make are open to light. This means they don't necessary choose darkness even if they have choice. There is only problem with agressive ants wich particulary good sight, like Formica or Myrmecia, which sometimes react to human motion. That's why sometimes is better to keep them covered, but the light itself doesn't harm them in any way. Most ants use their eyes mostly for navigation outside nest and don't react to motion. It is easy to recognize if ants feel safe - if they are calm, they feed larvae and clean them, and the queens lay eggs it means they feel comofortable and aren't afraid of anything.
Moiser, the difference beeing, everyone knows how to keep a dog - while most news starters will try anything on their ants. And while people would protest if you start feeding your dog with tofu, ive seen the most exotic things fed to ants without anyone raising a question. Point beeing: every pet deserves to get the treatment best for it. Somehow ants dont seem to be countet as pets at times.
And tail, you're refering to a so called "habituation" - the light is no longer resulting in panic. Yet some physiological processes are directly subjected to the nerve answer of the optic system. I'm not saying keeping them in light will result in the death of the colony. But im rather certain you will find the fitness reduced and maybe even some behavioral shifts.
If one day the interest in those questions is big enough, i would like to see some hundred colonies compared over a decade or so. Just to see what the difference would be.
For now, i prefer having to lift a cover before i check for my test tube then even propably slowing down or changing the normal developement.
Greetings
This question has leaded to much discussions. ;)
I want to add this,
If you keep ants try to keep them as they would live in nature. In nature they live underground, that means they live in the dark.
There was a test with a colony in the light and one in the dark, but as far as i know it was with only 2 colonies and both where Lasius niger so it is never proven it works with all species and with all colonies.
I understand that in the wild the Queen would live in total darkness. However in a formicarium the owner is going to want to view the nest. If the nest is kept in darkness and the colony only exposed to light when the owner is viewing the nest then I would assume this would cause more stress to the colony than with the colony being exposed to light all the time?
Some species are extremly photophobic, some are not, for eg Camp herc are very happy to be in the light, but Camp subs queens will eat her brood if left in the light
Its a question of experience, if you dont have much experience, its best to stick as closely as possible to the way they live in the wild
@ Moiser: if you look at your colony you don't do it by putting them in direct sunlight. Just uncover the nest slowly and they don't stress out. ;) (if you don't leave it to long uncovered)
Ok cool, I thought any light getting into the nest would annoy them. I guess if the farm is 20mm wide the colony could build their nest on the dark side of the farm if they wanted to.
well idk if you queen is from the wild like mine is (feel relly bad for digging her up but on bright side i did get all 17 workers live in the usa not allowed to ship queens) but this queen is doing fine in fact she is thriving in the light i have had her for 3 days now alls i did was expose her to a light for 5 min and hour then today it was 10 min and about 2 hours ago she layed an egg in driect light from a 3 bulb 360 wat light fixture above my kitchen table and just did again about 2 min ago poor thing looked like she was contorting to die when she layed it any way now i guess she is just fine with light in genrel but if u have say lasuis flavus i wouldnt sugest exposing any of them to light not even the workers i have seen them every now in then in my starting L. flavus colony and they bolt for the darkest area when i look now it could be my breath my mug or the light but they seem to be very photophobic to me
maybe you could put dots in the message, it would be more easy to understand.