The track and the right report for each phase

What the track is

A colony isn't the same thing its whole life. The lone queen in a test tube, the first cluster of nanitics and the mature, foraging colony are different phases — and each phase calls for a different look. The assessment track is the map of that journey: an ordered sequence of reports, one for each stage of the colony's life cycle.

If the report is the ruler that measures health at a single moment (one of the TGC's three tiers), the track is the path that tells you which ruler to use at each moment.

1. Why the report changes over time

What counts as "healthy" depends on the phase. During founding, what matters is a calm queen and the first eggs; in a mature colony, what counts is population, foraging and steady brood. Always using the same report would measure the colony with the wrong ruler.

The track solves this by switching the report automatically as the colony advances:

• Founding → founding report
• Nanitics → first-workers report
• Growth → growth report
• Mature → mature-colony report
• Diapause → winter-rest report

2. Anatomy of a track

Each track is made of ordered steps. A step links three things:

Here's a real track, the temperate claustral monogyne (Camponotus, Lasius, Formica…):

3. How the right track shows up on its own

You don't have to memorize which track to use. When you set the colony's species, AntNotation suggests the most specific track that matches — the species first, then the genus, and so on. A Messor pulls the harvesters track; an Atta, the fungus-growers one.

The track suggests, never forces. You can pick another one anytime, or leave it blank — then the suggestion goes back to being made by species. If nothing matches, there's always the generic track as a safety net.

4. The stepper: where you are on the journey

On the colony screen, the track shows up as a stepper (a row of steps). At a glance it shows:

• ✅ the steps already assessed;
• 🎯 the current step (the phase you're in now);
• ⬜ the steps still to come.

It's a snapshot of the colony's walk — and of what comes next.

5. How the right report comes pre-picked

When you tap Assess, AntNotation doesn't make you guess: it reads the colony's stage and status and pre-selects the report for that step of the track. Just check it and answer. You're still free to switch — the pre-selection is a convenience, not a lock.

6. How to use it in AntNotation

1. Open the colony and check the species — it's what suggests the track.
2. If you like, adjust the assessment track in the colony form (or leave it on Automatic).
3. Set the current stage when you know it — it makes the pre-selection even sharper.
4. Tap Assess: the report already comes chosen by the track's step.
5. Follow the stepper to see how much of the journey you've logged.

The system tracks are global and curated (a panel of a myrmecologist, an antkeeper and a biologist). Like reports, you can clone a track and adapt its steps to your own method — it's an open methodology (CC BY 4.0).

Each phase, the right ruler. Measure, log, compare! 🐜🗺️