New Quantitative Colony Description

[Acromyrmexbob]

I would like to suggest a new format to use by everyone when describing colonies of leaf cutting ants which will encapsulate all of the descriptions we always use in terms of age, size, health of fungus etc. It would be as follows.
1. Genus
Atta 'At'
Acromyrmex 'Ac'

2. Species
First 3 letters of bninomial. ie Atta cephalotes would be At. cep.

3. Developmental Stage
Colony consists of 'mated queen only' 'mqo'
Colony consists of mated queen and eggs / pupa(e) (has brood) 'mqb'
Colony has 1-5 workers 'mq5'
Colony has up to 50 workers 'mq50'
Colony has up to 500 workers 'mq500'
Colony has more than 500 workers 'mq500+'

4. Fungal Size
Fungus is absent 'F0'
Fungus is less than 1cm diameter 'F1'
Fungus is 1-5cm diameter '1F5'
Fungus is 5-15cm '5F15'
Fungus is bigger than 15cm 'F15+'

5. Number of fungus gardens
1(size of fungus garden)
2(size of first fungus garden)(size of second fungus garden)
3(size of first fungus garden)(size of second fungus garden)(size of third fungus garden)
etc, etc

6. Health of fungus garden
fungus is uniformly white. 'W'
fungus is mainly yellow 'Y'
fungus is mainly grey / dark grey (or green) 'G'

7. Castes present
minims only 'min'
up to small workersize 'smw'
up to large foragers 'lgw'
majors present 'maj'

So



would be

At.cep.mq50.smw.1(1F5).G

which reads Atta cephalotes, mated queen, up to 50 small workers, one fungus garden which is bigger than 1cm, less than 5 cm, Grey / green in colour.

What do you think. If we got used to this it would mean a lot of information about each colony we talk about could be passed over in relatively little description.

[Atta solider]

Yeah I think it's good to do

[Deansie26]

I like it, will take a little getting used to as you said. New members will be constant askingb what it means !
It is an informative format so would be good to get into the habit of using it.

[Britishants.com]

Never one to sit on the fence.... I'm not sure myself, I get the idea of it being informative to those in the know but for any amateur or newbie it could be a barrier! Here's an example of abbreviations I use daily at work,
Hd, pent, 6x6 w Dd, gg, fb, gw
Any ideas?
My point being being not every is that confident to ask, save themselves any possible embarrassment. I've left a few reptile forums myself because I can't even google their abbreviations language and it feels isolating and pointless and not everyone in this groups are as welcoming with their responses when asked.

Maybe a standard key definition at the page header might help!?

Just my thoughts xxx

[Acromyrmexbob]

I put it as an experimental sticky at the top but I am open to the fact that we shouldnt use it. I think we should not necessarily dumb down the development of our own expertise but rather should use this as a means of educating new people to increase their knowledge. Unless we develop our own interests and studies then I believe the lifespan of this forum and our interest in it will be short term. After another few months I will have said just about everything there is to say about my knowledge of Leaf Cutters based on where I am now and the same will go for all of the other principals on this site. After that we will all be left with the task of answering other peoples questions and policing the site with little or no return for us. I think that one of the reasons why people lose interest. So I am trying to differentiate between the roles we are fulfilling here. One is to introduce as many people as possible to our hobby and steer them through the often difficult task of rearing a colony of LCA's. The other, and the main reason I am on here tbh, is to advance the field and push forward the boundaries of our knowledge. Whilst I think there should always be a beginners and new keepers element as a central plank of this forum, I think not to develop the advanced part because new people will not understand is unnecessarily restrictive and short sighted. I do not think that new discoveries in science are held back because those coming into the field will become exasperated that there is ore to learn. Rather each person is able to operate at their own level and can advance to whatever level their interest pushes them to. It may be that I move this sticky to the Advanced Section? Maybe noone else will use it. I am about to start my final 12 month thesis write up for my PhD and one of the driving forces for starting this forum was to accumulate expertise from around the world to tap into and to feed into as part of this work. Perhaps this should be done in the appropriate section of the forum, the Advanced Section, the Scientific section etc and leave the Captivity section etc alone and free of this stuff. Again, totally open to suggestions.

[Britishants.com]

I've given it a go on my journal, so now I have my large colony that I call QEII, At. cep, MQ5000, F10, FG, Maj.
Oh how I long for a F70 with a FG6! If this is to work it would be a good idea to list future stock in this way on our mutual websites (with key of course) it gives a very detailed idea to what you'd be purchasing. Im embracing change and I think I like it!

[Acromyrmexbob]

Does this help. Could this be used to clarify whats going on with this system when it is used?



not as clear as I thought it would be but only because of the format. Will work on a clearer version.

[Jackie62]

I'm interested in using this description and will give it a go. I do agree that new members with not much experience may be a little concerned about using this system, but once you start, I think you'll get used to it quite quickly. And yes, the diagram does help, thanks.

[Formica123]

Little but tricky, I must admit il; have a go

[Bitterlime]

The diagram helps a lot! I will try using it.