Post AxLWFimfzWWCeKl8Cm by sewblue@sfba.social
(DIR) More posts by sewblue@sfba.social
(DIR) Post #AxLHGmmH88qo0pcZWq by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-19T22:59:04Z
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Just got an new ant guide "Ants of Britain and Europe"......did ya'll brexit the ANTS too???
(DIR) Post #AxLHQTi8sHeFm3JG1g by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-19T23:00:49Z
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Nonetheless a top notch field guide with lots of photos, helpful tips on how to tell the ants apart. Yes. I read field guides sometimes. What are you going to do about it? It's like a catalog of interesting ants I might meet someday if I ever travel over there.
(DIR) Post #AxLHvDtjiVQzhxOQiW by Paperposts@zirk.us
2025-08-19T23:06:20Z
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@futurebird bloomin’ euroants, comin’ over ‘ere and taking all the farm jobs
(DIR) Post #AxLI0gopcJwGquhndY by anselmschueler@ieji.de
2025-08-19T23:07:23Z
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@futurebird brants
(DIR) Post #AxLItriOo4UYZd0T44 by oldladyplays@wargamers.social
2025-08-19T23:17:22Z
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@futurebird I adore your Special Interest in ants. It's what drew me to follow you. My special interests are all fairly depressing: the fight for civil rights for all, WW2, and the Napoleonic Wars. Oh, and futbol. Yours is constructive and interesting.and you speak with such a matter-of-fact joy about it. I just wanted to tell you what a bright spot you are in my timeline.
(DIR) Post #AxLKPjkm2kX96MsXmi by Fat_Farang@mastodon.social
2025-08-19T23:34:19Z
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@futurebird They have to stop the immigrant brown and black ants from crossing the channel.
(DIR) Post #AxLKYRAGWeBm3Vx0qm by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-19T23:35:56Z
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The first version of the guide was in French and called "fourmis d'europe occidentale" or "The Ants of Western Europe" I don't know if that edition included Britain?
(DIR) Post #AxLKeFHTcbrYw85r4S by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-19T23:36:58Z
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Perhaps next I will read "The Ants of the Americas and Canada" ??
(DIR) Post #AxLMFsDptyDSNatfTk by sewblue@sfba.social
2025-08-19T23:54:57Z
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@futurebird who am I to judge.I have a field guide on geology on my desk.It has a 50 step process to allow anyone to identify minerals!Because who doesn't go on hikes without a splash of vinegar handy.
(DIR) Post #AxLPsz2km3M8gw3OQC by JosephMeyer@c.im
2025-08-19T23:09:48Z
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@futurebird To your knowledge is there a great deal of variation in the cooperative behaviors in ants of different species? If so, perhaps you or someone else could write a whole book of “ant fugues” with one chapter per species. 😃
(DIR) Post #AxLWFimfzWWCeKl8Cm by sewblue@sfba.social
2025-08-20T01:33:33Z
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@catmisgivings @futurebird look for roadside geology books for your area! They have maps like this or similar along roadways, pointing out interesting formations. Some are more detailed than others.
(DIR) Post #AxLWJ8YqbrQJSpv55E by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-20T01:47:35Z
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@sewblue @catmisgivings OMG I wonder if there is a NYC one. There is an audience for such things. I always wonder about the various rocks and cuts I see.
(DIR) Post #AxLWKv99SHp6RHkcwS by pelha@mstdn.social
2025-08-20T00:55:08Z
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@sewblue @futurebird urine is always available. That should work, yes?
(DIR) Post #AxLWKwD5V8Z9jmbHiS by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-20T01:47:56Z
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@pelha @sewblue :(
(DIR) Post #AxLWtlQXaHAQQiV0vg by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-20T01:54:14Z
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I want to say a little bit about insect field guides and languages. Although, I think this applies for any kind of field guide for plants, rocks, birds anything...It's very hard to find good field guides in multiple languages, even in a spamy language like English or French. Guides tend to be localized. There are whole shelves of ant books that haven't been translated and I can't read them and it drives me nuts. I mean it makes sense, but I want all them. https://www.nhbs.com/ecological-illustrated-of-common-ant-species-from-china-chinese-book
(DIR) Post #AxLX5LHqbApupfxD3w by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-20T01:56:20Z
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The same is true for origami books but you don't need to be able to read to get a lot out of those. But, there are still whole seas of information hidden behind language barriers. I guess translating field guides isn't lucrative?
(DIR) Post #AxLXHf6ElFVLkuOj2G by stormygleason@mastodon.sdf.org
2025-08-20T01:58:31Z
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@futurebird @sewblue @catmisgivings I have another book in the series but it appears New York state has one. https://archive.org/details/roadsidegeologyo0000vand
(DIR) Post #AxLXUSBI6RjZSDrSVc by bucknam@mastodon.social
2025-08-20T02:00:48Z
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@futurebird @sewblue @catmisgivings I keep the Roadside Geology of Colorado in my glovebox. It’s a great resource! I bet a lot of not all other states have a book in that series.
(DIR) Post #AxLXoKQocqBXD8bFke by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-20T02:04:28Z
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It's one of those things that you kind of assume exists. Of course I can find a book on "The Ants of Major Country/Region" but ... no maybe you can't. At least not one that isn't from 1919 with no photos."The Ants of Borneo" Is full of tempting leads, but it's so old many of the names have changed and some of the ants only have one or two words about them. Granted there are about 16,000 species of ants. STILL.
(DIR) Post #AxLXzwpsBE2XVLrQlk by jhavok@mstdn.party
2025-08-20T02:06:32Z
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@futurebird Sounds like a PhD in the works.
(DIR) Post #AxLYojyxjDOKPRKecy by michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
2025-08-20T02:15:42Z
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@futurebird @sewblue @catmisgivings The Roadside Geology series only covers the United States by state - except that California gets two books, because it has a lot of geology and also a lot of roads (Alaska only gets one) : https://mountain-press.com/collections/roadside-geology .But the AMNH has published some guide books for NYC in particular: https://archive.org/details/geologyofnewyork0000schu
(DIR) Post #AxLbZZiBvnYc4gwp1c by llewelly@sauropods.win
2025-08-20T02:46:35Z
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@futurebird I've noticed most "birds/mammals/trees of North America" type books often leave out Mexico and Greenland, which doesn't make any biogeographical sense at all.
(DIR) Post #AxLcCLBLszhgJ04Xb6 by xris@ecoevo.social
2025-08-20T02:53:31Z
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@futurebird I have yards of field guides.And Go Bags for different field trips, e.g.: plants, mosses and lichens, bugs ...
(DIR) Post #AxLdVDaYRV5uD8QSzw by sewblue@sfba.social
2025-08-20T02:25:40Z
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@michael_w_busch @futurebird @catmisgivings This is the most Mastodon pile on I've ever seen. People very excited over geology books!For the record - this is the book with the 50 point process for determining mineral types.The Roadside book I have has better maps, but the Sierras book is better on the science. Crazy fun fact - the west side of the Sierras has an average 2% grade. It's tough mainly because of crazy river and glacier valleys (Yosemite!). The back side of the Sierras has a whopping average 25% grade.
(DIR) Post #AxLdVEcMcG8TP2HQSO by jmccyoung@mstdn.social
2025-08-20T02:45:58Z
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@sewblue @michael_w_busch @futurebird @catmisgivings The volume in the same series on the geology of the San Francisco Bay Area is also really good: https://www.ucpress.edu/books/geology-of-the-san-francisco-bay-region/paper
(DIR) Post #AxLdVFKfxVa5cT0oWe by sewblue@sfba.social
2025-08-20T02:58:48Z
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@jmccyoung @michael_w_busch @futurebird @catmisgivings have your read this one? It was hard to get a copy for a while. (I am not exactly sure how geology books have multiplied like mushrooms on my bookshelves)
(DIR) Post #AxLe2AXgmziWJrnWfg by ClimateJenny@biodiversity.social
2025-08-20T03:14:08Z
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@futurebird Do you have a recommendation for ants of the mid-Atlantic?
(DIR) Post #AxLf4QCrcaHXQyh9KS by joelvanderwerf@mastodon.social
2025-08-20T03:25:44Z
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@futurebird @sewblue @catmisgivings For the I-80 slice of NY / NJ, the John McPhee 'Former World' series of books have some explanations of road cuts. I was just re-reading Basin and Range, which is mostly about Nevada, but starts out on a road cut in the Palisades.
(DIR) Post #AxLfoKwJXHgIQ5qdIO by PTR_K@dice.camp
2025-08-20T03:34:03Z
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@futurebird The old "Vampire: the Masquerade" role-playing game used to have setting supplements that were called like "New York by Night" or "Los Angeles by Night".I'm just imagining an myrmecological equivalent series, all titled something like "Delmarva by Pheromone Trail".
(DIR) Post #AxLgZoGcJZbIzIyu24 by patrickhadfield@mastodon.scot
2025-08-20T03:42:39Z
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@futurebird finally, something positive that generative AI could do!
(DIR) Post #AxLjuRGDLaLnZuJyW8 by Infrapink@mastodon.ie
2025-08-20T04:19:58Z
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@futurebird The Brits have always drawn a line between themselves and the mainland.
(DIR) Post #AxLrWsRfQGiAZbxDTk by goesselgold@norden.social
2025-08-20T05:45:22Z
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@futurebird You shouldn’t need to be able to read to fold from origami books because of the standardized Yoshizawa-Randlett diagramming system (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshizawa%E2%80%93Randlett_system), but you have to learn that language as well. And still sometimes comments are helpful, even necessary.
(DIR) Post #AxMRUZMsycGnB3utBg by peterainbow@beige.party
2025-08-20T12:28:20Z
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@futurebird I have lots of red ant colonies on my allotment and they are enjoying stinging me this year, was reading this paper about their venom and wow there was me thinking it was a simple toxin https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/14/5/358
(DIR) Post #AxMX3TjyOKjhd7BH16 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-20T13:30:40Z
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@ClimateJenny Do you mean like ... Ants in Barbados and Iceland??
(DIR) Post #AxMbEEbVPPQtgdbXe4 by ClimateJenny@biodiversity.social
2025-08-20T14:17:26Z
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@futurebird Hee hee, nope, mid-Atlantic US. Sorry, I'm a novice.
(DIR) Post #AxMbPePxm2sgvreJwu by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-20T14:19:32Z
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@ClimateJenny What state? There are a lot of ecologies in that region and I haven't seen a book that looks as a whole.
(DIR) Post #AxN7smyyCtB6QTxg2a by ClimateJenny@biodiversity.social
2025-08-20T20:23:19Z
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@futurebird Personally I’m interested in the Northern Virginia coastal plain, but it interlaces a bit with piedmont. It’s messy.
(DIR) Post #AxN9nv5OqkxA1Hm6Uq by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-20T20:44:53Z
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@ClimateJenny There are two books:the ants of New EnglandThis is the best field guide on US and Canada ants, although it's about "new England" many of your local ants will be in this book. "Ants of North America" is a more general guide, not as much detail, but still high quality.
(DIR) Post #AxNIWzJol8vroMWIK0 by ClimateJenny@biodiversity.social
2025-08-20T22:22:36Z
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@futurebird Thanks! I understand this problem well. I’m into sedges, and my go-to reference books, the best there are for my area, are from Illinois and Minnesota.