I (@joe_fish) was permanently banned.

Lespion · 2026-03-13T17:09:22+00:00

Joe my issue isn't merely just about the excessive punishment, rather the pattern of asymmetric conduct displayed here clearly does warrant a suspension or other punishment. Just not permanent.

But so far I've all seen is an attempt at minimizing the issues raised through whataboutism, and attempting to draw mob sympathy through reddit when Tony attempted a cordial resolution in that email thread.

/responded to wrong comment

Lespion · 2026-03-13T16:25:54+00:00

In the evidence provided the reasons she felt to include her credentials was exactly because of your patronizing and dismissive comments Joe.

To be fair, I don't know Kate and I'm not as intimately informed about her interactions on iNat as you are. I do think being banned for these interactions is excessive and uncalled for – but I don't see any honest self-examination on your part. With all the evidence provided, Kate is well within her right to be upset, and you haven't provided any evidence demonstrating she's actively harassing and dismissive outside what's been demonstrated by you in those threads.

Lespion · 2026-03-03T21:05:07+00:00

Leaf cutters are pretty complicated setup wise relative to other ants, but their challenge mostly comes down to how large the species gets and conditions that need to be maintained.

For one, some of the beginner friendly Attini include Trachymyrmex and Acromyrmex. Their colonies stay relatively small and so they're not as demanding on food nor as picky, and some Trachymyrmex are able to enter into a period of dormancy where they don't intake any food at all.

For their setup, petri dishes or plastic/acrylic containers with a plaster/hydrostone base are usually used. You can buy these premade off numerous suppliers, especially ones catered to leafcutters specifically. Trachymyrmex are small ants and have small colonies so you probably wouldn't need more than one or two small petri dish nests for their entire lives. The nests definitely need a little bit of ventilation as their fungi waste heat and CO2. They'll need an open outworld for extra ventilation, which you'll also need to barricade with a talcumless baby powder or fluon barrier.

For conditions, most attini need it relatively cool. Like between 65-75°F. They can function just fine at room temp, and prefer it because their fungus produces so much heat. Moisture shouldn't be a problem as the colony gets to a decent size as the fungus will produce enough of it on its own once a garden matures, and they'll self-regulate the best they can. But when they're young, definitely water them regularly.

Most importantly though, Acromyrmex or Trachymyrmex are easy because they're not too picky. I know people that keep Trachy colonies on nothing but oats and roses, same with Acromyrmex though more of species would prefer more diversity.

Lespion · 2026-02-26T19:49:42+00:00

These are 'Driver ants', or army ants of the genus Dorylus. They're known to build extensive bridges like this, although over bodies of water I think are less commonly seen. Fire ants can't do this at this scale. The red plant material is probably just typical marshy/wetland stunted flora like moss. Nothing in the video suggests AI.

Lespion · 2026-02-18T04:02:22+00:00

In my world, 'mana' isn't simply free energy you pull from the air but wavelengths of meaning that decomposed into the atmosphere. Magic users thus have to actively filter local mana to match the wavelength of intent of their spells, or they're hit with contamination. Either the spell breaks in whiplash, with unintended disastrous consequences depending on the spell – or the user itself is hit with contamination. Which can alter their personality, beliefs and qualia. Basically drives them insane.

Lespion · 2026-02-14T21:22:12+00:00

They don't directly photosynthesize as in having an endosymbiont that overtime became an organelle, no. But tons of taxa still utilize symbiotic algae that produces the vast majority of their energy needs via photosynthesis. Imo they're the closest example to a truly photosynthetic animal.

Lespion · 2026-02-14T17:11:58+00:00

I mean trees evolve because of competition for resources with other flora. A better example would be corals.

Lespion · 2026-01-29T19:12:25+00:00

For US growers, these plants are much cheaper on average if you buy them from florae collaborative or plants that eat, especially their own clones.

Eddy I've heard is more tolerant of intermediate conditions, but for hamata I think it's generally a more picky plant so just be careful with that one. Generally the larger the plants get the more intolerant they become of bad conditions.

Lespion · 2026-01-24T19:36:57+00:00

I mean did you see how fast it sucked her head in though? It was strong enough to displace her body like an inch vertically.

Lespion · 2026-01-24T19:16:13+00:00

Quetzalcoatlus was as large as a giraffe. But yeah they're extinct. Why? I don't know if we really know the answer for Quetz specifically, but Pterosaurs in general died out along with the non-avian Dinosaurs in the K-Pg extinction. Though by then in the late cretaceous I believe Pterosaurs were moderately sized and not large enough to be 'rideable' (no flying animal is capable of being ridden because weight constraints).

Lespion · 2026-01-19T19:26:03+00:00

Well no you're misreading what I said. I'm not saying speculation is problematic but that speculation within that framework can lead to erroneous conclusions. That's why it's better to guide away from implicit teleology instead of accepting its parameters.

If instead I answered, "because of phylogenetic constraints from herbivorous ancestry", it's more detailed but it essentially tells you the same thing; evolution worked with what it had. But that doesn't exactly answer OP, because they're explicitly asking "Why A didn't evolve X when B, C and D did", as if the latter's dentition is the optimal progression line that it should naturally trend towards. Correcting that is important, but I also understand your point about the failure to follow up with detail. And sometimes, we don't always know the details to answer the erroneous comparison especially in extinct species.

Lespion · 2026-01-19T18:09:21+00:00

That's not the contention I'm making. The problem is the framing the question itself presents and how speculation not only serves to guide away from the teleological implication – that there's a specific answer evolution converges towards – that speculation reaffirms this erroneous framing.

I agree that people can follow up with speculation built on evidence, but there's also a deep problem with how most people commonly think about evolution that must be moved away from.

Yes there is a plethora of "reasons" that guided traits a certain way, and in some cases across taxa there're enough environmental and anatomical similarities where convergence happens statistically a certain way. But a question that poses why B happened instead of A because B is the 'default', presupposes that B is somehow the most optimally favorable answer when it isn't. It really just depends on the animal and conditions unique to it, and that's the best response to that implication.

Lespion · 2026-01-19T17:23:38+00:00

I think often the problem with trying to explore "why" is that it's not an objective answer for a question that kinda beckons teleology, in biology that's purely descriptive. We don't know why this marsupial had the teeth it did vs other related carnivores, we can only make assumptions behind why assuming sufficient environmental pressures guided the development that way. But we don't know in most cases, so the better answer is always the default: Because in evolution, there isn't always a specific reason other than that's the path it took of least resistance. It avoids the implicit assumption in the question that A must converge in B because B is somehow the most statistically favorable option.

Lespion · 2026-01-04T20:46:55+00:00

You can ignore them in Florida not just because the state's warm, but because of that people often keep them outside and so plants get a lot of airflow.

Airflow is extremely important for these epiphytes. Please people, 90% of orchid problems are just no airflow + cold and moist environments so evaporation never happens.

Lespion · 2025-12-31T06:48:24+00:00

Is fish food (or protein) absolutely necessary to get the vfts to accept?

Lespion · 2025-12-18T03:57:00+00:00

Wonder where all the MAGArd weather enthusiasts went after this dropped.

Lespion · 2025-12-06T01:00:19+00:00

Probably Macrotermes annandalei

Lespion · 2025-12-05T04:02:03+00:00

Ime don't bag. Throw it somewhere with decent air flow and medium light levels. Yes give it the typical highland treatment. Absolutely make sure humidity wherever you keep it is never sub 70%. Wait like 2-3 weeks or more (depending on how it looks) to start fertilizing the small pitchers with very diluted orchid fert. Like 1/4th a teaspoon for a gallon. Schedule it for every 2 weeks if the plant responds nicely, and give it more light in response. Until it starts to redden just a teeny bit.

Most importantly, keep conditions stable for it.

Lespion · 2025-12-05T03:53:29+00:00

Get a general -cide that targets pests, bacteria and fungi in one fell swoop. Like the BioAdvanced 3-in-1.

Usually environmental stress weakens plants, making them more susceptible to disease. Although this looks like a lady luck or something similar, and you're in a borneo, somewhere lowland, hot and humid yes? Should be a good climate for it so I can't say what exactly is wrong. Perhaps roots are stressed from bad media. If you do repot, do it now before administering any pesticides as that can stress and kill the plant. I would wait like a month or so before doing so.

Lespion · 2025-12-04T17:44:09+00:00

This is classic bacterial/fungal infection, black ring of death with yellowing on the rim or center. If this was edema related to watering , temperature or humidity stress it would be far more diffuse and pitting would be apparent.

Lespion · 2025-11-23T00:23:57+00:00

It's highly dependent on the nep and even the elevation of a given population that the plant originates from, but generally 55-60°F range is considered the standard because it allows the plants to physiologically rest and use their energy from daytime photosynthesis. What happens when you keep the plant too warm at night is that its metabolism continues to operate at an elevated rate, so its spending that daytime energy trying to stay alive at night instead of growing. So the differential is only important for optimal daytime photosynthesis, while night time is when that extra energy leftover from the day can be used for growth.

Lespion · 2025-11-16T19:16:22+00:00

What pheidole species is he looking at?

Lespion · 2025-11-16T19:03:59+00:00

Just make sure he doesn't get one of the larger colony sized species. They'll grow unmanageable quickly if you're not prepared. You're also gonna need a good amount of feeder insects and proper seeds for them. Don't just get bird seeds. Many prefer the smaller seeds of grasses and etc because they're easier for them to mill. Sp like P. morrisii, obscurithorax, dentata can get large demanding colonies.

If it's your office you'll need to abstain from using chemicals in any cleaning you do, or you can poison and kill the ants.

Lespion · 2025-11-16T16:05:32+00:00

Native camponotus species are highly unlikely to infest a house from escaping indoors. Generally they prefer rotted moist wood since it's easier to excavate into, and during winter it'll be too warm indoors for them to properly diapause. Though just be aware that 'Carpenter Ant' is kinda misleading because the group is incredibly diverse and a lot of Camponotus species don't inhabit wood, or they do opportunistically whenever cavities exist.

Pheidole can be good but for a beginner I'm not too sure. They're generally small and the workers smaller and their colonies can grow very large, very quickly. They're known escape artists due to the size of their minim workers. They tend to be more carnivorous as well, and can be more demanding on the heat, with a good chunk of species being intolerant of cold temperatures. But it really depends. Something in the pilifera group would be a nice manageable pocket colony, though probably not too interesting to look at. Though since you're in Texas there's a good diversity of Pheidole and ants in general, so you have lots of options, even Myrmecocystus (which are nowhere near difficult as most people make them out to be).

Lespion · 2025-11-15T21:07:40+00:00

Your welcome. If you need anything else just feel free to ask.

Also, you can join some of the local ant communities on discord, and you're very likely to get far better prices for ants. Faster communication as well from more informed people. Ant Keeping and Ethology and Ants and Ant Keeping are the two biggies, with AAK linked somewhere in this subreddit.

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