Formicarium Designed With Internal Lighting
Recently we have covered the latest and greatest in commercial and private formicarium designs. Mark Newton, a moderator of the "Australian Ant Keepers" group on Facebook has been guiding us through his creative process in designing a natural looking Hebel nest with internal lighting for a growing Myrmecia fuscipes colony. If Mark Newton's name sounds familiar this may be because of his incredible macro photography. Mark has also made significant contributions to research and knowledge of Australian spider and scorpions.
The formicarium is meticulously crafted from Hebel with a focus on ensuring a natural, rocky, somewhat rugged appearance. A stark contrast to the designs we have shown you previously by Brian Martell for example.
What truly sets Mark's design apart from the rest is his incorporation of internal lighting into the inside of the formicarium chambers. The lighting uses red LED's connected to a control circuit at the back of the formicarium. Red lights were chosen as it is documented that ants struggle to see red light making it ideal for allowing observation of the ants with minimal disturbance to the ants. Mark's design is just gorgeous and we are all looking forward to seeing the Myrmecia fuscipes colony once they have moved into this set up.
On a separate note; I've heard whispers that others are looking at incorporating internal lighting into their formicarium designs and this may just be beginning of revolutionary progress in how ant keepers design their formicaria. The desire to perfect the balance between maintaining ideal conditions for the ants whilst enabling observation with minimal disturbance is a goal ant keepers hopefully continue to strive for.
If you have a formicarium that you believe deserves to be featured, drop us an email and maybe you'll see your design here in the near future
