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Zhang N, Yong EH. Dynamics, statistics, and task allocation of foraging ants. Phys Rev E 2023; 108:054306. [PMID: 38115539 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.108.054306] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2023] [Accepted: 10/11/2023] [Indexed: 12/21/2023]
Abstract
Ant foraging is one of the most fascinating examples of cooperative behavior observed in nature. It is well studied from an entomology viewpoint, but there is currently a lack of mathematical synthesis of this phenomenon. We address this by constructing an ant foraging model that incorporates simple behavioral rules within three task groups of the ant colony during foraging (foragers, transporters, and followers), pheromone trails, and memory effects. The motion of an ant is modeled as a discrete correlated random walk, with a characteristic zigzag path that is congruent with experimental data. We simulate the foraging cycle, which consists of ants searching for food, transporting food, and depositing chemical trails to recruit and orient more ants (en masse) to the food source. This allows us to gain insights into the basic mechanism of the cooperative interactions between ants and the dynamical division of labor within an ant colony during foraging to achieve optimal efficiency. We observe a disorder-order phase transition from the start to the end of a foraging process, signaling collective motion at the population level. Finally, we present a set of time delay ODEs that corroborates with numerical simulations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nuoya Zhang
- Division of Physics and Applied Physics, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637371, Singapore
| | - Ee Hou Yong
- Division of Physics and Applied Physics, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637371, Singapore
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2
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Frizzi F, Balzani P, Masoni A, Frasconi Wendt C, Marconi M, Rossi A, Santini G. Sub-lethal doses of imidacloprid alter food selection in the invasive garden ant Lasius neglectus. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL 2023; 30:27501-27509. [PMID: 36385335 PMCID: PMC9995417 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-022-24100-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2022] [Accepted: 11/04/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Despite several restrictions to their use, neonicotinoid insecticides are still widely employed worldwide. Residual sub-lethal amounts of these chemicals can have detrimental effects on the behavior of non-target insects. Toxic effects on economically important species such as bees have been widely documented, but less is known about their toxic action on other social insects, such as ants. In this study, we assessed the effect of different sub-lethal doses of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid on the ability of colonies of the invasive ant Lasius neglectus to select the most profitable resource. We used Y-shaped mazes having an imidacloprid-polluted or an unpolluted sucrose solution on the two branches. Two sucrose (0.1 M, 0.5 M) and two imidacloprid (1 μg/ml, 10 μg/ml) concentrations were used. In parallel, we evaluated the marking activity of foragers who fed on the same solutions. We found that the 0.1 M sugar solution polluted with 1 μg/ml imidacloprid was significantly more frequently selected in binary choices experiments than the unpolluted resource. Moreover, the ingestion of the same combination of sugar and imidacloprid significantly increased the marking rate of foragers. The higher concentration of the pollutant had lower effects, probably because of the hormesis phenomenon. Results suggest that the lower sub-lethal dose of imidacloprid can lead ants to select again the polluted resource. This "active" selection of the pollutant may magnify the negative effects on the colonies. Due to their ecological role, any impairment of ant survival or behavior may have detrimental cascade effects on the whole ecosystem.
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Affiliation(s)
- Filippo Frizzi
- Department of Biology, University of Florence, Via Madonna del Piano, 6, Sesto F.No., 50019, Florence, Italy.
| | - Paride Balzani
- Department of Biology, University of Florence, Via Madonna del Piano, 6, Sesto F.No., 50019, Florence, Italy
- Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters, South Bohemian Research Center of Aquaculture and Biodiversity of Hydrocenoses, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Zátiší, 728/II, 38925, Vodňany, Czech Republic
| | - Alberto Masoni
- Department of Biology, University of Florence, Via Madonna del Piano, 6, Sesto F.No., 50019, Florence, Italy
| | - Clara Frasconi Wendt
- Department of Biology, University of Florence, Via Madonna del Piano, 6, Sesto F.No., 50019, Florence, Italy
- cE3c, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Faculty of Science, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Matilde Marconi
- Department of Biology, University of Florence, Via Madonna del Piano, 6, Sesto F.No., 50019, Florence, Italy
| | - Asia Rossi
- Department of Biology, University of Florence, Via Madonna del Piano, 6, Sesto F.No., 50019, Florence, Italy
| | - Giacomo Santini
- Department of Biology, University of Florence, Via Madonna del Piano, 6, Sesto F.No., 50019, Florence, Italy
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3
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Oberhauser FB, Bogenberger K, Czaczkes TJ. Ants prefer the option they are trained to first. J Exp Biol 2022; 225:286063. [PMID: 36524433 PMCID: PMC10088526 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.243984] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2022] [Accepted: 11/28/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
The temporal order in which experiences occur can have a profound influence on their salience. Humans and other vertebrates usually memorise the first and last items of a list most readily. Studies on serial position learning in insects, mainly in bees, showed preference for last encountered items. In bees, pheromone presence can also influence motivation, and thus learning. However, neither serial position learning nor the effect of recruitment pheromones on learning have been well investigated in ants. We trained Lasius niger ants to make multiple visits to sucrose on a runway which alternated between lemon or rosemary odour, and the presence or absence of trail pheromone, and then tested for preference between the odours on a Y-maze, in order to investigate the effect of pheromone presence on learning. Pheromone presence did not affect ant choice. However, unexpectedly, the ants strongly preferred the first odour encountered. This was explored by the addition of a familiarisation visit without pheromone or odour. The familiarisation visit disabled or reversed this preference for the first odour encountered, with ants now mostly taking their 'default' preference by choosing the left side of the maze. Our study found no effect of trail pheromone on learning, but a strong yet fragile preference for the first odour experienced. These different preferences could lead to spatial segregation of foraging activity depending on prior experience and might facilitate efficient resource exploitation by colonies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felix B Oberhauser
- Animal Comparative Economics Laboratory, Department of Zoology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Regensburg, 93053 Regensburg, Germany.,Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, 78464 Konstanz, Germany
| | - Katharina Bogenberger
- Animal Comparative Economics Laboratory, Department of Zoology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Regensburg, 93053 Regensburg, Germany
| | - Tomer J Czaczkes
- Animal Comparative Economics Laboratory, Department of Zoology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Regensburg, 93053 Regensburg, Germany
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4
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Yossen MB, Buteler M, Lozada M. Context-dependent use of olfactory cues by foragers of Vespula germanica social wasps. Anim Cogn 2021; 25:645-655. [PMID: 34839409 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-021-01583-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2021] [Revised: 11/10/2021] [Accepted: 11/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Food search is guided by cues from different sensory modalities, such as olfactory and visual. In social wasps, olfaction plays a key role in locating new resources. However, while several studies have focused on the importance of odours in predation, less is known about their role during scavenging, when spatial memories become a relevant guidance mechanism. Here, we investigated whether the use of odours during carrion exploitation by Vespula germanica wasps depends on whether they are locating or relocating the resource. By means of field choice experiments, we evaluated wasp response to odours: an odour eliciting a spontaneous aversive response, a learnt odour eliciting an appetitive response, and the conspecifics' odour eliciting an attractive response. Experiments were conducted in different contexts, i.e., during food localisation by naïve foragers, re-localisation of a resource at the learnt site and re-localisation of a resource that had been displaced from the learnt site. All olfactory stimuli evaluated markedly influenced foraging decisions in naïve wasps and in experienced wasps when the food was moved from the learnt location. However, odours were ignored during the wasp's return to the foraging site. These results suggest a cue hierarchy, in which local landmarks are more reliable to relocate carrion, while olfaction would be useful to locate novel resources or relocate a known source when spatial memories fail. Our findings demonstrate a context-dependent use of odours during carrion exploitation by V. germanica wasps and highlight the importance of spatial memories as an important factor modulating odour response.
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Affiliation(s)
- M B Yossen
- Laboratorio Ecotono, Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medio Ambiente (INIBIOMA), CONICET, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Pasaje Gutiérrez 1125, 8400, San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina
| | - M Buteler
- Laboratorio Ecotono, Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medio Ambiente (INIBIOMA), CONICET, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Pasaje Gutiérrez 1125, 8400, San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina
| | - M Lozada
- Laboratorio Ecotono, Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medio Ambiente (INIBIOMA), CONICET, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Pasaje Gutiérrez 1125, 8400, San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina.
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5
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Friedman DA, Tschantz A, Ramstead MJD, Friston K, Constant A. Active Inferants: An Active Inference Framework for Ant Colony Behavior. Front Behav Neurosci 2021; 15:647732. [PMID: 34248515 PMCID: PMC8264549 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.647732] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2020] [Accepted: 05/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In this paper, we introduce an active inference model of ant colony foraging behavior, and implement the model in a series of in silico experiments. Active inference is a multiscale approach to behavioral modeling that is being applied across settings in theoretical biology and ethology. The ant colony is a classic case system in the function of distributed systems in terms of stigmergic decision-making and information sharing. Here we specify and simulate a Markov decision process (MDP) model for ant colony foraging. We investigate a well-known paradigm from laboratory ant colony behavioral experiments, the alternating T-maze paradigm, to illustrate the ability of the model to recover basic colony phenomena such as trail formation after food location discovery. We conclude by outlining how the active inference ant colony foraging behavioral model can be extended and situated within a nested multiscale framework and systems approaches to biology more generally.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Ari Friedman
- Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United States
- Active Inference Lab, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United States
| | - Alec Tschantz
- Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom
- Department of Informatics, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom
| | - Maxwell J. D. Ramstead
- Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
- Culture, Mind, and Brain Program, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- Spatial Web Foundation, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Karl Friston
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Axel Constant
- Theory and Method in Biosciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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6
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Japyassú HF, Neco LC, Nunes-Neto N. Minimal Organizational Requirements for the Ascription of Animal Personality to Social Groups. Front Psychol 2021; 11:601937. [PMID: 33995158 PMCID: PMC8116521 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.601937] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2020] [Accepted: 11/24/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Recently, psychological phenomena have been expanded to new domains, crisscrossing boundaries of organizational levels, with the emergence of areas such as social personality and ecosystem learning. In this contribution, we analyze the ascription of an individual-based concept (personality) to the social level. Although justified boundary crossings can boost new approaches and applications, the indiscriminate misuse of concepts refrains the growth of scientific areas. The concept of social personality is based mainly on the detection of repeated group differences across a population, in a direct transposition of personality concepts from the individual to the social level. We show that this direct transposition is problematic for avowing the nonsensical ascription of personality even to simple electronic devices. To go beyond a metaphoric use of social personality, we apply the organizational approach to a review of social insect communication networks. Our conceptual analysis shows that socially self-organized systems, such as isolated ant trails and bee's recruitment groups, are too simple to have social personality. The situation is more nuanced when measuring the collective choice between nest sites or foraging patches: some species show positive and negative feedbacks between two or more self-organized social structures so that these co-dependent structures are inter-related by second-order, social information systems, complying with a formal requirement for having social personality: the social closure of constraints. Other requirements include the decoupling between individual and social dynamics, and the self-regulation of collective decision processes. Social personality results to be sometimes a metaphorical transposition of a psychological concept to a social phenomenon. The application of this organizational approach to cases of learning ecosystems, or evolutionary learning, could help to ground theoretically the ascription of psychological properties to levels of analysis beyond the individual, up to meta-populations or ecological communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hilton F. Japyassú
- National Institute of Science and Technology in Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies in Ecology and Evolution (INCT IN-TREE), Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil
- Biology Institute, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil
| | - Lucia C. Neco
- School of Humanities, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
| | - Nei Nunes-Neto
- National Institute of Science and Technology in Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies in Ecology and Evolution (INCT IN-TREE), Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil
- Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Federal University of Grande Dourados, Dourados, Brazil
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7
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Kasture P, Nishimura H. Analysis of Cooperative Perception in Ant Traffic and Its Effects on Transportation System by Using a Congestion-Free Ant-Trail Model. SENSORS 2021; 21:s21072393. [PMID: 33808325 PMCID: PMC8038084 DOI: 10.3390/s21072393] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2021] [Revised: 03/23/2021] [Accepted: 03/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
We investigated agent-based model simulations that mimic an ant transportation system to analyze the cooperative perception and communication in the system. On a trail, ants use cooperative perception through chemotaxis to maintain a constant average velocity irrespective of their density, thereby avoiding traffic jams. Using model simulations and approximate mathematical representations, we analyzed various aspects of the communication system and their effects on cooperative perception in ant traffic. Based on the analysis, insights about the cooperative perception of ants which facilitate decentralized self-organization is presented. We also present values of communication-parameters in ant traffic, where the system conveys traffic conditions to individual ants, which ants use to self-organize and avoid traffic-jams. The mathematical analysis also verifies our findings and provides a better understanding of various model parameters leading to model improvements.
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8
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Oberhauser FB, Wendt S, Czaczkes TJ. Trail Pheromone Does Not Modulate Subjective Reward Evaluation in Lasius niger Ants. Front Psychol 2020; 11:555576. [PMID: 33071878 PMCID: PMC7540218 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.555576] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2020] [Accepted: 09/01/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Comparing the value of options is at the heart of economic decision-making. While an option may have an absolute quality (e.g. a food source has a fixed energy content), the perceived value of the option may be malleable. The factors affecting the perceived value of an option may thus strongly influence which option is ultimately chosen. Expectations have been shown to be a strong driver of perceived value in both humans and social insects, causing an undervaluation of a given option if a better option was expected, and an overvaluation if a poorer one was expected. In humans, perceived value can be strongly affected by social information. Value perception in some insects has also been shown to be affected by social information, showing conformism as in humans and other animals. Here, over a series of experiments, we tested whether pheromone trail presence, a social information source, influenced the perceived value of a food source in the ant Lasius niger. We found that the presence of pheromone trails leading to a sucrose solution does not influence food acceptance, pheromone deposition when returning from a food source, drinking time, or frequency of U-turns on return from the food. Two further assays for measuring changes in food acceptance, designed to increase sensitivity by avoiding ceiling effects, also showed no effect of pheromone presence on food acceptance. In a separate study, L. niger have also been found to show no preference for, or avoidance of, odors associated with foods found in the presence of pheromone. We are thus confident that trail pheromone presence does not affect the perceived value of a food source in these ants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felix B Oberhauser
- Animal Comparative Economics Laboratory, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.,Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - Stephanie Wendt
- Animal Comparative Economics Laboratory, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Tomer J Czaczkes
- Animal Comparative Economics Laboratory, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
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9
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Doussot C, Bertrand OJN, Egelhaaf M. Visually guided homing of bumblebees in ambiguous situations: A behavioural and modelling study. PLoS Comput Biol 2020; 16:e1008272. [PMID: 33048938 PMCID: PMC7553325 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008272] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2019] [Accepted: 08/19/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Returning home is a crucial task accomplished daily by many animals, including humans. Because of their tiny brains, insects, like bees or ants, are good study models for efficient navigation strategies. Bees and ants are known to rely mainly on learned visual information about the nest surroundings to pinpoint their barely visible nest-entrance. During the return, when the actual sight of the insect matches the learned information, the insect is easily guided home. Occasionally, modifications to the visual environment may take place while the insect is on a foraging trip. Here, we addressed the ecologically relevant question of how bumblebees’ homing is affected by such a situation. In an artificial setting, we habituated bees to be guided to their nest by two constellations of visual cues. After habituation, these cues were displaced during foraging trips into a conflict situation. We recorded bumblebees’ return flights in such circumstances and investigated where they search for their nest entrance following the degree of displacement between the two visually relevant cues. Bumblebees mostly searched at the fictive nest location as indicated by either cue constellation, but never at a compromise location between them. We compared these experimental results to the predictions of different types of homing models. We found that models guiding an agent by a single holistic view of the nest surroundings could not account for the bumblebees’ search behaviour in cue-conflict situations. Instead, homing models relying on multiple views were sufficient. We could further show that homing models required fewer views and got more robust to height changes if optic flow-based spatial information was encoded and learned, rather than just brightness information. Returning home sounds trivial, but to a concealed underground location like a burrow, is less easy. For the buff-tailed bumblebees, this task is a routine. After collecting pollen in gardens or flowered meadows, bees must return to their underground nest to feed the queen’s larvae. The nest entrance is almost invisible for a returning bee; therefore, it guides its flight by information about the surrounding visual environment. Since the seminal work of Timbergern, many experiments have focused on how visual information is guiding foraging insects back home. In these experiments, returning foragers were confronted with a coherent displacement of the entire nest surroundings, hence, leading the bees to a unique new location. But in nature, the objects constituting the visual environment maybe unorderly displaced, as some are differently inclined to the action of different factors, e.g. wind. In our study, we moved objects in a tricky way to create two fictitious nest entrances. The bees searched at the fictitious nest entrances, but never in-between. The distance between the fictitious nests affected the bees’ search. Finally, we could predict the search location by using bio-inspired homing models potentially interesting for implementing in autonomous robots.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charlotte Doussot
- Neurobiology, Faculty of Biology, Universität Bielefeld, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | | | - Martin Egelhaaf
- Neurobiology, Faculty of Biology, Universität Bielefeld, Germany
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10
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Oberhauser FB, Koch A, De Agrò M, Rex K, Czaczkes TJ. Ants resort to heuristics when facing relational-learning tasks they cannot solve. Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287:20201262. [PMID: 32781947 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1262] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
We humans sort the world around us into conceptual groups, such as 'the same' or 'different', which facilitates many cognitive tasks. Applying such abstract concepts can improve problem-solving success and is therefore worth the cognitive investment. In this study, we investigated whether ants (Lasius niger) can learn the relational rule of 'the same' or 'different' by training them in an odour match-to-sample test over 48 visits. While ants in the 'different' treatment improved significantly over time, reaching around 65% correct decisions, ants in the 'same' treatment did not. Ants did not seem able to learn such abstract relational concepts, but instead created their own individual strategy to try to solve the problem: some ants decided to 'always go left', others preferred a 'go to the more salient cue' heuristic which systematically biased their decisions. These heuristics even occasionally lowered the success rate in the experiment below chance, indicating that following any rule may be more desirable then making truly random decisions. As the finding that ants resort to heuristics when facing hard-to-solve decisions was discovered post-hoc, we strongly encourage other researchers to ask whether employing heuristics in the face of challenging tasks is a widespread phenomenon in insects.
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Affiliation(s)
- F B Oberhauser
- Animal Comparative Economics Laboratory, Department of Zoology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Regensburg, Germany.,Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Germany
| | - A Koch
- Animal Comparative Economics Laboratory, Department of Zoology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Regensburg, Germany
| | - M De Agrò
- Animal Comparative Economics Laboratory, Department of Zoology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Regensburg, Germany.,Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Italy
| | - K Rex
- Department of Biology, Pestalozzi-Gymnasium, Munich, Germany
| | - T J Czaczkes
- Animal Comparative Economics Laboratory, Department of Zoology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Regensburg, Germany
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11
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Kolay S, Boulay R, d'Ettorre P. Regulation of Ant Foraging: A Review of the Role of Information Use and Personality. Front Psychol 2020; 11:734. [PMID: 32425852 PMCID: PMC7212395 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00734] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2019] [Accepted: 03/25/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Animals live in heterogeneous environments where food resources are transient and have to be exploited rapidly. Ants show a wide range of foraging strategies and this activity is tightly regulated irrespective of the mode of recruitment used. Individual foragers base their decision to forage on information received from nestmates (social information). Transmission of information can be in the form of direct physical interactions such as antennation or indirect exchange of information such as laying of pheromone trails. Foragers also rely on information from their internal states or experience (personal information). The interaction between these two sources of information gives rise to plasticity in foraging behavior. Recent studies have examined the role of personality (consistent inter-individual variation in behavioral traits) during ant foraging. Since colonies differ from each other in the distribution of personalities of their members, colonies may consistently differ in behavioral traits, giving rise to colony level personality. However, the interaction between information use and personality, especially at the individual level, remains unexplored. Here, we briefly summarize the literature on the effect of social and personal information on the regulation of ant foraging and the effect of personality on this behavior. We point out that a more focused examination of the interplay between personality and information use will help us understand how behavioral plasticity in the context of foraging is shaped at the colony and individual levels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Swetashree Kolay
- Laboratory of Experimental and Comparative Ethology (LEEC) UR4443, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Villetaneuse, France
| | - Raphaël Boulay
- Institute of Insect Biology (IRBI), UMR CNRS 7261, University of Tours, Tours, France
| | - Patrizia d'Ettorre
- Laboratory of Experimental and Comparative Ethology (LEEC) UR4443, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Villetaneuse, France.,Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), Paris, France
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12
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Wendt S, Kleinhoelting N, Czaczkes TJ. Negative feedback: ants choose unoccupied over occupied food sources and lay more pheromone to them. J R Soc Interface 2020; 17:20190661. [PMID: 32093538 DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2019.0661] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
In order to make effective collective decisions, ants lay pheromone trails to lead nest-mates to acceptable food sources. The strength of a trail informs other ants about the quality of a food source, allowing colonies to exploit the most profitable resources. However, recruiting too many ants to a single food source can lead to over-exploitation, queuing, and thus decreased food intake for the colony. The nonlinear nature of pheromonal recruitment can also lead colonies to become trapped in suboptimal decisions, if the environment changes. Negative feedback systems can ameliorate these problems. We investigated a potential source of negative feedback: whether the presence of nest-mates makes food sources more or less attractive. Lasius niger workers were trained to food sources of identical quality, scented with different odours. Ants fed alone at one odour. At the other odour ants fed either with other feeding nest-mates, or with dummy ants (black surface lipid-coated glass beads). Ants tended to avoid food sources at which other nest-mates were present. They also deposited less pheromone to occupied food sources, suggesting an active avoidance behaviour, and potentiating negative feedback. This effect may prevent crowding at a single food source when other profitable food sources are available elsewhere, leading to a higher collective food intake. It could also potentially protect colonies from becoming trapped in local feeding optima. However, ants did not avoid the food associated with dummy ants, suggesting that surface lipids and static visual cues alone may not be sufficient for nest-mate recognition in this context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephanie Wendt
- Animal Comparative Economics Laboratory, Institute of Zoology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Regensburg, 93053 Regensburg, Germany
| | - Nico Kleinhoelting
- Animal Comparative Economics Laboratory, Institute of Zoology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Regensburg, 93053 Regensburg, Germany.,Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital Regensburg, 93042 Regensburg, Germany
| | - Tomer J Czaczkes
- Animal Comparative Economics Laboratory, Institute of Zoology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Regensburg, 93053 Regensburg, Germany
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13
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Multi-modal cue integration in the black garden ant. Anim Cogn 2020; 23:1119-1127. [DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01360-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2019] [Revised: 01/29/2020] [Accepted: 02/03/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
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14
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Identification of the Trail Pheromone of the Carpenter Ant Camponotus modoc. J Chem Ecol 2019; 45:901-913. [PMID: 31773376 DOI: 10.1007/s10886-019-01114-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2019] [Revised: 09/16/2019] [Accepted: 10/03/2019] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Trail pheromones deposited by ants lead nestmates to food sources. Based on previous evidence that the trail pheromone of the carpenter ant Camponotus modoc originates from the hindgut, our objective in this study was to identify the key component(s) of the pheromone. We collected C. modoc colonies from conifer forests and maintained them in an outdoor enclosure near our laboratory for chemical analyses and behavioral experiments. In gas chromatographic-electroantennographic detection and gas chromatography-mass spectrometric analyses of worker ant hindgut extracts, we identified five candidate components: 2,4-dimethylhexanoic acid, 2,4-dimethyl-5-hexanolide, pentadecane, dodecanoic acid and 3,4-dihydro-8-hydroxy-3,5,7-trimethylisocoumarin. In a series of trail-following experiments, ants followed trails of synthetic 2,4-dimethyl-5-hexanolide, a blend of the five compounds, and hindgut extract over similar distances, indicating that the hexanolide accounted for the entire behavioral activity of the hindgut extract. The hexanolide not only mediated orientation of C. modoc foragers on trails, it also attracted them over distance, indicating a dual function. Further analyses and bioassays with racemic and stereoselectively synthesized hexanolides revealed that the ants produce, and respond to, the (2S,4R,5S)-stereoisomer. The same stereoisomer is a trail pheromone component in several Camponotus congeners, indicating significant overlap in their respective trail pheromone communication systems.
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15
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Hunt ER, Jones S, Hauert S. Testing the limits of pheromone stigmergy in high-density robot swarms. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2019; 6:190225. [PMID: 31827817 PMCID: PMC6894587 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.190225] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2019] [Accepted: 09/20/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Area coverage and collective exploration are key challenges for swarm robotics. Previous research in this field has drawn inspiration from ant colonies, with real, or more commonly virtual, pheromones deposited into a shared environment to coordinate behaviour through stigmergy. Repellent pheromones can facilitate rapid dispersal of robotic agents, yet this has been demonstrated only for relatively small swarm sizes (N < 30). Here, we report findings from swarms of real robots (Kilobots) an order of magnitude larger (N > 300) and from realistic simulation experiments up to N = 400. We identify limitations to stigmergy in a spatially constrained, high-density environment-a free but bounded two-dimensional workspace-using repellent binary pheromone. At larger N and higher densities, a simple stigmergic avoidance algorithm becomes first no better, then inferior to, the area coverage of non-interacting random walkers. Thus, the assumption of robustness and scalability for such approaches may need to be re-examined when they are working at a high density caused by ever-increasing swarm sizes. Instead, subcellular biology, and diffusive processes, may prove a better source of inspiration at large N in high agent density environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edmund R. Hunt
- Department of Engineering Mathematics, University of Bristol, Merchant Venturers Building, Bristol BS8 1UB, UK
- Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Coldharbour Lane, Stoke Gifford, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK
| | - Simon Jones
- Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Coldharbour Lane, Stoke Gifford, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK
| | - Sabine Hauert
- Department of Engineering Mathematics, University of Bristol, Merchant Venturers Building, Bristol BS8 1UB, UK
- Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Coldharbour Lane, Stoke Gifford, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK
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16
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Sophisticated collective foraging with minimalist agents: a swarm robotics test. SWARM INTELLIGENCE 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s11721-019-00176-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
Abstract
How groups of cooperative foragers can achieve efficient and robust collective foraging is of interest both to biologists studying social insects and engineers designing swarm robotics systems. Of particular interest are distance-quality trade-offs and swarm-size-dependent foraging strategies. Here, we present a collective foraging system based on virtual pheromones, tested in simulation and in swarms of up to 200 physical robots. Our individual agent controllers are highly simplified, as they are based on binary pheromone sensors. Despite being simple, our individual controllers are able to reproduce classical foraging experiments conducted with more capable real ants that sense pheromone concentration and follow its gradient. One key feature of our controllers is a control parameter which balances the trade-off between distance selectivity and quality selectivity of individual foragers. We construct an optimal foraging theory model that accounts for distance and quality of resources, as well as overcrowding, and predicts a swarm-size-dependent strategy. We test swarms implementing our controllers against our optimality model and find that, for moderate swarm sizes, they can be parameterised to approximate the optimal foraging strategy. This study demonstrates the sufficiency of simple individual agent rules to generate sophisticated collective foraging behaviour.
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17
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Copy when uncertain: lower light levels increase trail pheromone depositing and reliance on pheromone trails in ants. Anim Behav 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.08.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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18
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Scott CE, McCann S, Andrade MCB. Male black widows parasitize mate-searching effort of rivals to find females faster. Proc Biol Sci 2019; 286:20191470. [PMID: 31362641 PMCID: PMC6710583 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.1470] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2019] [Accepted: 07/08/2019] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Mate-searching success is a critical precursor to mating, but there is a dearth of research on traits and tactics that confer a competitive advantage in finding potential mates. Theory and available empirical evidence suggest that males locate mates using mate-attraction signals produced by receptive females (personal information) and avoid inadvertently produced cues from rival males (social information) that indicate a female has probably already mated. Here, we show that western black widow males use both kinds of information to find females efficiently, parasitizing the searching effort of rivals in a way that guarantees competition over mating after reaching a female's web. This tactic may be adaptive because female receptivity is transient, and we show that (i) mate searching is risky (88% mortality) and (ii) a strongly male-biased operational sex ratio (from 1.2 : 1 to more than 10 : 1) makes competition inevitable. Males with access to rivals' silk trails moved at higher speeds than those with only personal information, and located females even when personal information was unreliable or absent. We show that following rivals can increase the potential for sexual selection on females as well as males and argue it may be more widespread in nature than is currently realized.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catherine E. Scott
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, M1C 1A4
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19
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Wendt S, Strunk KS, Heinze J, Roider A, Czaczkes TJ. Positive and negative incentive contrasts lead to relative value perception in ants. eLife 2019; 8:e45450. [PMID: 31262401 PMCID: PMC6606023 DOI: 10.7554/elife.45450] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2019] [Accepted: 05/30/2019] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans usually assess things not according to their absolute value, but relative to reference points - a main tenant of Prospect Theory. For example, people rate a new salary relative to previous salaries and salaries of their peers, rather than absolute income. We demonstrate a similar effect in an insect: ants expecting to find low-quality food showed higher acceptance of medium-quality food than ants expecting medium quality, and vice versa for high expectations. Further experiments demonstrate that these contrast effects arise from cognitive rather than mere sensory or pre-cognitive perceptual causes. Social information gained inside the nest can also serve as a reference point: the quality of food received from other ants affected the perceived value of food found later. Value judgement is a key element in decision making, and thus relative value perception strongly influences which option is chosen and ultimately how all animals make decisions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephanie Wendt
- Animal Comparative Economics Laboratory, Institute of Zoology and Evolutionary BiologyUniversity of RegensburgRegensburgGermany
| | - Kim S Strunk
- School of Business, Economics and Information Systems, Chair of Management, People and InformationUniversity of PassauPassauGermany
| | - Jürgen Heinze
- Institute of Zoology and Evolutionary BiologyUniversity of RegensburgRegensburgGermany
| | - Andreas Roider
- Department of EconomicsUniversity of RegensburgRegensburgGermany
| | - Tomer J Czaczkes
- Animal Comparative Economics Laboratory, Institute of Zoology and Evolutionary BiologyUniversity of RegensburgRegensburgGermany
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20
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Grüter C, Czaczkes TJ. Communication in social insects and how it is shaped by individual experience. Anim Behav 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.01.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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21
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Qin W, Lin S, Chen X, Chen J, Wang L, Xiong H, Xie Q, Sun Z, Wen X, Wang C. Food Transport of Red Imported Fire Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) on Vertical Surfaces. Sci Rep 2019; 9:3283. [PMID: 30824752 PMCID: PMC6397150 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-39756-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2018] [Accepted: 02/01/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Many ants can cooperatively transport large food items (either coordinated or uncoordinated during transportation), which can be rarely observed in other animals besides humans. Although these behaviors have been extensively investigated on horizontal surfaces, few studies dealt with food transport on vertical surfaces. The red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren, is an invasive ant species that commonly forages on trees. Our studies showed that S. invicta used multiple strategies to transport food items on vertical surfaces (tree trunks). Small food items (1 × 1 × 1 mm sausage) were carried and transported by individual ants, and larger food items were either collectively and directly transported or cut collaboratively first and small particles were then transported individually or collectively. Competition and deadlocks were frequently observed during individual and collective transport respectively. During cutting, groups of ants tightly fixed the food on the tree trunks by holding the edges of the food item, while other ants cut the food into smaller particles. All food items and particles were moved downward. We investigated the effects of food placement (placed on a platform or fixed on tree trunk), food shape (cuboid or flattened), particle sizes (0.45-1, 1-2, 2-3, or 3-4 mm), and placement height (20, 80, or 150 cm) on the food transport on tree trunks. Our studies are the first to show how fire ants transport food on a vertical surface, and may provide insights into the development of novel fire ant baiting systems that can be placed on tree trunks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenquan Qin
- Guangdong Key Laboratory for Innovation Development and Utilization of Forest Plant Germplasm, College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China
| | - Shucong Lin
- Guangdong Key Laboratory for Innovation Development and Utilization of Forest Plant Germplasm, College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China
| | - Xuan Chen
- Department of Biology, Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD, 21801, USA
| | - Jian Chen
- Biological Control of Pests Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Stoneville, MS, 38776, USA
| | - Lei Wang
- College of Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China
| | - Hongpeng Xiong
- Guangdong Key Laboratory for Innovation Development and Utilization of Forest Plant Germplasm, College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China
| | - Qinxi Xie
- Guangdong Key Laboratory for Innovation Development and Utilization of Forest Plant Germplasm, College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China
| | - Zhaohui Sun
- Guangdong Key Laboratory for Innovation Development and Utilization of Forest Plant Germplasm, College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China
| | - Xiujun Wen
- Guangdong Key Laboratory for Innovation Development and Utilization of Forest Plant Germplasm, College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China.
| | - Cai Wang
- Guangdong Key Laboratory for Innovation Development and Utilization of Forest Plant Germplasm, College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China.
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22
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Private information conflict: Lasius niger ants prefer olfactory cues to route memory. Anim Cogn 2019; 22:355-364. [DOI: 10.1007/s10071-019-01248-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2018] [Revised: 02/05/2019] [Accepted: 02/08/2019] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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23
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Frizzi F, Talone F, Santini G. Modulation of trail laying in the ant Lasius neglectus
(Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and its role in the collective selection of a food source. Ethology 2018. [DOI: 10.1111/eth.12821] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Filippo Frizzi
- Universita degli Studi di Firenze; Dipartimento di Biologia; Sesto Fiorentino Italy
| | - Francesco Talone
- Universita degli Studi di Firenze; Dipartimento di Biologia; Sesto Fiorentino Italy
| | - Giacomo Santini
- Universita degli Studi di Firenze; Dipartimento di Biologia; Sesto Fiorentino Italy
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24
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Oberhauser FB, Koch A, Czaczkes TJ. Small differences in learning speed for different food qualities can drive efficient collective foraging in ant colonies. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-018-2583-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
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25
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Gallotti R, Chialvo DR. How ants move: individual and collective scaling properties. J R Soc Interface 2018; 15:rsif.2018.0223. [PMID: 29899161 DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2018.0223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2018] [Accepted: 05/18/2018] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The motion of social insects is often used as a paradigmatic example of complex adaptive dynamics arising from decentralized individual behaviour. In this paper, we revisit the topic of the ruling laws behind the burst of activity in ants. The analysis, done over previously reported data, reconsiders the causation arrows, proposed at individual level, not finding any link between the duration of the ants' activity and their moving speed. Secondly, synthetic trajectories created from steps of different ants demonstrate that a Markov process can explain the previously reported speed shape profile. Finally, we show that as more ants enter the nest, the faster they move, which implies a collective property. Overall, these results provide a mechanistic explanation for the reported behavioural laws, and suggest us a formal way to further study the collective properties in these scenarios.
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Affiliation(s)
- Riccardo Gallotti
- Instituto de Física Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos (IFISC), CSIC-UIB, Campus UIB, 07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.,Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences (CEMSC), Universidad Nacional de San Martín, 25 de Mayo 1169, San Martín, (1650), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Dante R Chialvo
- Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences (CEMSC), Universidad Nacional de San Martín, 25 de Mayo 1169, San Martín, (1650), Buenos Aires, Argentina .,Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICET), Godoy Cruz 2290, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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26
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Risk preference during collective decision making: ant colonies make risk-indifferent collective choices. Anim Behav 2017. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.08.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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27
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Saar M, Gilad T, Kilon-Kallner T, Rosenfeld A, Subach A, Scharf I. The interplay between maze complexity, colony size, learning and memory in ants while solving a maze: A test at the colony level. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0183753. [PMID: 28837675 PMCID: PMC5570381 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0183753] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2017] [Accepted: 08/10/2017] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Central-place foragers need to explore their immediate habitat in order to reach food. We let colonies of the individually foraging desert ant Cataglyphis niger search for a food reward in a maze. We did so for three tests per day over two successive days and an additional test after a time interval of 4-20 days (seven tests in total). We examined whether the colonies reached the food reward faster, consumed more food and changed the number of workers searching over time, within and between days. Colonies' food-discovery time shortened within and between days, indicating that some workers learnt and became more efficient in moving through the maze. Such workers, however, also forgot and deteriorated in their food-discovery time, leveling off back to initial performance after about two weeks. We used mazes of increasing complexity levels, differing in the potential number of wrong turns. The number of workers searching increased with colony size. Food-discovery time also increased with colony size in complex mazes but not in simple ones, perhaps due to the more frequent interactions among workers in large colonies having to move through narrow routes. Finally, the motivation to solve the maze was probably not only the food reward, because food consumption did not change over time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maya Saar
- School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Tomer Gilad
- School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Tal Kilon-Kallner
- School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Adar Rosenfeld
- School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Aziz Subach
- School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Inon Scharf
- School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
- * E-mail:
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28
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Bles O, Lozet N, de Biseau JC, Campo A, Deneubourg JL. Effect of the land area elevation on the collective choice in ants. Sci Rep 2017; 7:8745. [PMID: 28821811 PMCID: PMC5562813 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-08592-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2017] [Accepted: 07/11/2017] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Collective decisions regarding food source exploitation in social insects are influenced by a range of parameters, from source quality to individual preference and social information sharing. Those regarding the elevation of the physical trail towards a food source have been neglected. In this work, we investigated the effect of ascending and descending paths from the nest to a food source on collective choice in two ant species Lasius niger and Myrmica rubra. Our hypothesis that returning loaded with food from the high source is more energy efficient was validated by choice experiments: when the sources are simultaneously introduced the high food source is preferentially exploited by both species. The flexibility of colony response was then tested by introducing the preferred source (high) incidentally, after recruitment towards the down food source began. Despite the well-known lack of flexibility of L. niger, both species showed the ability to reallocate their foraging workforce towards the highest food source. The collective choice and the flexibility are based on the difference between the u-turn rates when foragers are facing the ascending or descending branch. We discuss these results in terms of species-specifics characteristics and ecological context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olivier Bles
- Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems (Cenoli) - CP 231, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Campus Plaine, Boulevard du Triomphe, Building NO - level 5, B-1050, Bruxelles, Belgium.
| | - Nathanaël Lozet
- Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems (Cenoli) - CP 231, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Campus Plaine, Boulevard du Triomphe, Building NO - level 5, B-1050, Bruxelles, Belgium
| | - Jean-Christophe de Biseau
- Evolutionary Biology and Ecology (EBE) - CP 160, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Campus du Solbosch, 50 Avenue Franklin D, Roosevelt, B-1050, Bruxelles, Belgium
| | - Alexandre Campo
- Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems (Cenoli) - CP 231, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Campus Plaine, Boulevard du Triomphe, Building NO - level 5, B-1050, Bruxelles, Belgium
| | - Jean-Louis Deneubourg
- Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems (Cenoli) - CP 231, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Campus Plaine, Boulevard du Triomphe, Building NO - level 5, B-1050, Bruxelles, Belgium
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29
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Xie XF, Wang ZJ. Cooperative group optimization with ants (CGO-AS): Leverage optimization with mixed individual and social learning. Appl Soft Comput 2017. [DOI: 10.1016/j.asoc.2016.11.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
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30
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Fonio E, Heyman Y, Boczkowski L, Gelblum A, Kosowski A, Korman A, Feinerman O. A locally-blazed ant trail achieves efficient collective navigation despite limited information. eLife 2016; 5. [PMID: 27815944 PMCID: PMC5142812 DOI: 10.7554/elife.20185] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2016] [Accepted: 11/03/2016] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Any organism faces sensory and cognitive limitations which may result in maladaptive decisions. Such limitations are prominent in the context of groups where the relevant information at the individual level may not coincide with collective requirements. Here, we study the navigational decisions exhibited by Paratrechina longicornis ants as they cooperatively transport a large food item. These decisions hinge on the perception of individuals which often restricts them from providing the group with reliable directional information. We find that, to achieve efficient navigation despite partial and even misleading information, these ants employ a locally-blazed trail. This trail significantly deviates from the classical notion of an ant trail: First, instead of systematically marking the full path, ants mark short segments originating at the load. Second, the carrying team constantly loses the guiding trail. We experimentally and theoretically show that the locally-blazed trail optimally and robustly exploits useful knowledge while avoiding the pitfalls of misleading information. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.20185.001 Ants forage to find food and bring it back to the colony. If they come across food items that are too large or heavy for a single individual to carry, some species are able to form teams to cooperatively carry these items to the nest. This collective navigation process hinges on the navigational abilities of the individual ants. However, in natural terrains, the routes that are available to an individual ant are often inaccessible for a large group carrying a bulky item. So how do the ants manage to navigate together? Fonio et al. studied how longhorn crazy ants cooperate to move large items. The experiments show that nearby ants not currently engaged in carrying the item mark the ground with chemical scents. Fonio et al. devised an automated method of detecting scent marking events and this has provided some of the first real time documentation of ant scent trails as they form. This shows that when cooperating to move large objects, the ants use scent marks to form a new type of trail that is highly dynamic. Unlike other ant trails that mark the whole path between the food and the nest, these new trails only direct the next step of the movement. Furthermore, the team of ants carrying the item only follows these local directions in a loose manner and often ignores them. Fonio et al. then used a mathematical model and further experiments to show that this new type of trail effectively solves the problems of collective navigation during cooperative transport. Essentially, the locality of the trail and the loose way in which the group follows it tune the degree to which the collective motion depends on the directions provided by individual ants. This allows the group to benefit from the useful information available to individuals while avoiding local traps that may occur when these individuals wrongly direct them towards dead ends. The next step following on from this work is to understand the mechanisms behind this newly discovered trail, and in particular, understand how the collective motion results from the actions of individual ants that react to single drops of scent. Another challenge for future research would be to find technological applications for this newly discovered strategy, such as routing over communication networks. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.20185.002
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Affiliation(s)
- Ehud Fonio
- The Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Yael Heyman
- The Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Lucas Boczkowski
- Institut de Recherche en Informatique Fondamentale, CNRS and University Paris Diderot, Paris, France
| | - Aviram Gelblum
- The Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Adrian Kosowski
- Institut de Recherche en Informatique Fondamentale, INRIA and University Paris Diderot, Paris, France
| | - Amos Korman
- Institut de Recherche en Informatique Fondamentale, CNRS and University Paris Diderot, Paris, France
| | - Ofer Feinerman
- The Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
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31
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Pasquier G, Grüter C. Individual learning performance and exploratory activity are linked to colony foraging success in a mass-recruiting ant. Behav Ecol 2016. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arw079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
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32
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Czaczkes TJ, Heinze J. Ants adjust their pheromone deposition to a changing environment and their probability of making errors. Proc Biol Sci 2016; 282:rspb.2015.0679. [PMID: 26063845 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2015.0679] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Animals must contend with an ever-changing environment. Social animals, especially eusocial insects such as ants and bees, rely heavily on communication for their success. However, in a changing environment, communicated information can become rapidly outdated. This is a particular problem for pheromone trail using ants, as once deposited pheromones cannot be removed. Here, we study the response of ant foragers to an environmental change. Ants were trained to one feeder location, and the feeder was then moved to a different location. We found that ants responded to an environmental change by strongly upregulating pheromone deposition immediately after experiencing the change. This may help maintain the colony's foraging flexibility, and allow multiple food locations to be exploited simultaneously. Our treatment also caused uncertainty in the foragers, by making their memories less reliable. Ants which had made an error but eventually found the food source upregulated pheromone deposition when returning to the nest. Intriguingly, ants on their way towards the food source downregulated pheromone deposition if they were going to make an error. This may suggest that individual ants can measure the reliability of their own memories and respond appropriately.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomer J Czaczkes
- Biologie I, Universität Regensburg, Universitätstrasse 31, Regensburg 93053, Germany
| | - Jürgen Heinze
- Biologie I, Universität Regensburg, Universitätstrasse 31, Regensburg 93053, Germany
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Czaczkes TJ, Weichselgartner T, Bernadou A, Heinze J. The Effect of Trail Pheromone and Path Confinement on Learning of Complex Routes in the Ant Lasius niger. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0149720. [PMID: 26959996 PMCID: PMC4784821 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0149720] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2015] [Accepted: 01/25/2016] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Route learning is key to the survival of many central place foragers, such as bees and many ants. For ants which lay pheromone trails, the presence of a trail may act as an important source of information about whether an error has been made. The presence of trail pheromone has been demonstrated to support route learning, and the effect of pheromones on route choice have been reported to persist even after the pheromones have been removed. This could be explained in two ways: the pheromone may constrain the ants onto the correct route, thus preventing errors and aiding learning. Alternatively, the pheromones may act as a ‘reassurance’, signalling that the learner is on the right path and that learning the path is worthwhile. Here, we disentangle pheromone presence from route confinement in order to test these hypotheses, using the ant Lasius niger as a model. Unexpectedly, we did not find any evidence that pheromones support route learning. Indeed, there was no evidence that ants confined to the correct route learned at all. Thus, while we cannot support the ‘reassurance’ hypothesis, we can rule out the ‘confinement’ hypothesis. Other findings, such as a reduction in pheromone deposition in the presence of trail pheromones, are remarkably consistent with previous experiments. As previously reported, ants which make errors on their outward journey upregulate pheromone deposition on their return. Surprisingly, ants which would go on to make an error down-regulate pheromone deposition on their outward journey, hinting at a capacity for ants to gauge the quality of their own memories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomer J. Czaczkes
- Fakultät für Biologie und Vorklinische Medizin, LS Zoologie / Evolutionsbiologie, Universität Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Tobias Weichselgartner
- Fakultät für Biologie und Vorklinische Medizin, LS Zoologie / Evolutionsbiologie, Universität Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Abel Bernadou
- Fakultät für Biologie und Vorklinische Medizin, LS Zoologie / Evolutionsbiologie, Universität Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Jürgen Heinze
- Fakultät für Biologie und Vorklinische Medizin, LS Zoologie / Evolutionsbiologie, Universität Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
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Czaczkes TJ, Czaczkes B, Iglhaut C, Heinze J. Composite collective decision-making. Proc Biol Sci 2016; 282:20142723. [PMID: 26019155 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.2723] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Individual animals are adept at making decisions and have cognitive abilities, such as memory, which allow them to hone their decisions. Social animals can also share information. This allows social animals to make adaptive group-level decisions. Both individual and collective decision-making systems also have drawbacks and limitations, and while both are well studied, the interaction between them is still poorly understood. Here, we study how individual and collective decision-making interact during ant foraging. We first gathered empirical data on memory-based foraging persistence in the ant Lasius niger. We used these data to create an agent-based model where ants may use social information (trail pheromones), private information (memories) or both to make foraging decisions. The combined use of social and private information by individuals results in greater efficiency at the group level than when either information source was used alone. The modelled ants couple consensus decision-making, allowing them to quickly exploit high-quality food sources, and combined decision-making, allowing different individuals to specialize in exploiting different resource patches. Such a composite collective decision-making system reaps the benefits of both its constituent parts. Exploiting such insights into composite collective decision-making may lead to improved decision-making algorithms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomer J Czaczkes
- Biologie I, Universität Regensburg, Universitätsstrasse 31, Regensburg 93053, Germany
| | - Benjamin Czaczkes
- Programming Instruction Unit, Faculty of Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
| | - Carolin Iglhaut
- Biologie I, Universität Regensburg, Universitätsstrasse 31, Regensburg 93053, Germany
| | - Jürgen Heinze
- Biologie I, Universität Regensburg, Universitätsstrasse 31, Regensburg 93053, Germany
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How memory and motivation modulate the responses to trail pheromones in three ant species. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2016. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-016-2059-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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Czaczkes TJ, Salmane AK, Klampfleuthner FAM, Heinze J. Private information alone can trigger trapping of ant colonies in local feeding optima. J Exp Biol 2016; 219:744-51. [DOI: 10.1242/jeb.131847] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2015] [Accepted: 12/21/2015] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Ant colonies are famous for using trail pheromones to make collective decisions. Trail pheromone systems are characterised by positive feedback, which results in rapid decision making. However, in an iconic experiment ants were shown to become ‘trapped’ in exploiting a poor food source, if it was discovered earlier. This has conventionally been explained by the established pheromone trail becoming too strong for new trails to compete. However, many social insects have a well-developed memory, and private information often overrules conflicting social information. Thus, route memory could also explain this collective ‘trapping’ effect. Here we disentangle the effects of social and private information in two ‘trapping’ experiments; one in which ants are presented a good and poor food source, and one in which ants are presented a long and short path to the same food source. We find that private information is sufficient to trigger trapping in selecting the poorer of two food sources, and may be sufficient to cause it altogether. Memories did not trigger trapping in the shortest path experiment, likely as sufficiently detailed memories did not form. The fact that collective decisions can be triggered by private information alone may require other collective patterns previously attributed solely to social information use to be reconsidered.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomer J. Czaczkes
- Biologie I, Universität Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, D-93053 Regensburg, Germany
| | - Anete K. Salmane
- Biologie I, Universität Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, D-93053 Regensburg, Germany
- Department of Zoology and Animal Ecology, Faculty of Biology, University of Latvia, Jelgavas street 1, LV-1004, Riga, Latvia
| | | | - Jürgen Heinze
- Biologie I, Universität Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, D-93053 Regensburg, Germany
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Minoura M, Sonoda K, Sakiyama T, Gunji YP. Rotating panoramic view: interaction between visual and olfactory cues in ants. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2016; 3:150426. [PMID: 26909169 PMCID: PMC4736924 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.150426] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2015] [Accepted: 12/24/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
Insects use a navigational toolkit consisting of multiple strategies such as path integration, view-dependent recognition methods and olfactory cues. The question arises as to how directional cues afforded by a visual panorama combine with olfactory cues from a pheromone trail to guide ants towards their nest. We positioned a garden ant Lasius niger on a rotating table, whereon a segment of a pheromone trail relative to the stationary panorama was rotated while the ant walked along the trail towards its nest. The rotational speed of the table (3 r.p.m.) was set so that the table would rotate through about 90° by the time that an ant had walked from the start to the centre of the table. The ant completed a U-turn at about this point and so travelled in a nest-ward direction without leaving the trail. These results suggest that the ants persist on the pheromone trail and use visual input to determine their direction of travel along the trail.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mai Minoura
- School of Fundamental Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Kohei Sonoda
- Research Organization of Science and Technology, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga, Japan
| | - Tomoko Sakiyama
- School of Fundamental Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Yukio-Pegio Gunji
- School of Fundamental Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
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Jack-McCollough RT, Nieh JC. Honeybees tune excitatory and inhibitory recruitment signalling to resource value and predation risk. Anim Behav 2015. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.09.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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Collective decision making in a heterogeneous environment: Lasius niger colonies preferentially forage at easy to learn locations. Anim Behav 2015. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.03.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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Czaczkes TJ, Grüter C, Ratnieks FLW. Trail pheromones: an integrative view of their role in social insect colony organization. ANNUAL REVIEW OF ENTOMOLOGY 2015; 60:581-99. [PMID: 25386724 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-ento-010814-020627] [Citation(s) in RCA: 116] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
Trail pheromones do more than simply guide social insect workers from point A to point B. Recent research has revealed additional ways in which they help to regulate colony foraging, often via positive and negative feedback processes that influence the exploitation of the different resources that a colony has knowledge of. Trail pheromones are often complementary or synergistic with other information sources, such as individual memory. Pheromone trails can be composed of two or more pheromones with different functions, and information may be embedded in the trail network geometry. These findings indicate remarkable sophistication in how trail pheromones are used to regulate colony-level behavior, and how trail pheromones are used and deployed at the individual level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomer J Czaczkes
- Biologie I, Universität Regensburg, D-93053 Regensburg, Germany;
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Czaczkes TJ. How to not get stuck-negative feedback due to crowding maintains flexibility in ant foraging. J Theor Biol 2014; 360:172-180. [PMID: 25034339 DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2014.07.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2014] [Revised: 06/30/2014] [Accepted: 07/03/2014] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Ant foraging is an important model system in the study of adaptive complex systems. Many ants use trail pheromones to recruit nestmates to resources. Differential recruitment depending on resource quality coupled with positive feedback allows ant colonies to make rapid and accurate collective decisions about how best to allocate their work-force. However, ant colonies can become trapped in sub-optimal foraging decisions if recruitment to a poor resource becomes too strong before a better resource is discovered. Genetic algorithms and Ant Colony Optimisation heuristics can also suffer from being trapped in such local optima. Recently, two negative feedback effects were described, in which an increase in crowding (crowding negative feedback-CNF) or trail pheromones (pheromone negative feedback-PNF) caused a decrease in subsequent pheromone deposition. Using agent based simulations with realistic parameters I test whether these negative feedback effects can prevent simulated ant colonies from becoming trapped in sub-optimal foraging decisions. Colonies are presented with two food sources of different qualities, and these qualities switch part way through the experiment. When either no negative feedback effects are implemented or only PNF is implemented colonies are completely unable to refocus their foraging effort to the high quality feeder. However, when CNF alone is implemented at a realistic level 97% of colonies successfully refocus their foraging effort. This ability to refocus colony foraging efforts is due to the strong reduction of pheromone deposition caused by CNF. This suggests that CNF is an important behaviour enabling ant colonies to maintain foraging flexibility. However, CNF comes at a slight cost to colonies when making their initial foraging decision.
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Basari N, Laird-Hopkins BC, Sendova-Franks AB, Franks NR. Trail laying during tandem-running recruitment in the ant Temnothorax albipennis. Naturwissenschaften 2014; 101:549-56. [DOI: 10.1007/s00114-014-1191-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2014] [Revised: 05/19/2014] [Accepted: 05/22/2014] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Forster A, Czaczkes TJ, Warner E, Woodall T, Martin E, Ratnieks FLW, Herberstein M. Effect of Trail Bifurcation Asymmetry and Pheromone Presence or Absence on Trail Choice by Lasius niger Ants. Ethology 2014; 120:768-775. [PMID: 25400307 PMCID: PMC4204274 DOI: 10.1111/eth.12248] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2013] [Revised: 01/18/2014] [Accepted: 04/10/2014] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
During foraging, ant workers are known to make use of multiple information sources, such as private information (personal memory) and social information (trail pheromones). Environmental effects on foraging, and how these interact with other information sources, have, however, been little studied. One environmental effect is trail bifurcation asymmetry. Ants forage on branching trail networks and must often decide which branch to take at a junction (bifurcation). This is an important decision, as finding food sources relies on making the correct choices at bifurcations. Bifurcation angle may provide important information when making this choice. We used a Y-maze with a pivoting 90° bifurcation to study trail choice of Lasius niger foragers at varying branch asymmetries (0°, [both branches 45° from straight ahead], 30° [branches at 30° and 60° from straight ahead], 45°, 60° and 90° [one branch straight ahead, the other at 90°]). The experiment was carried out either with equal amounts of trail pheromone on both branches of the bifurcation or with pheromone present on only one branch. Our results show that with equal pheromone, trail asymmetry has a significant effect on trail choice. Ants preferentially follow the branch deviating least from straight, and this effect increases as asymmetry increases (47% at 0°, 54% at 30°, 57% at 45°, 66% at 60° and 73% at 90°). However, when pheromone is only present on one branch, the graded effect of asymmetry disappears. Overall, however, there is an effect of asymmetry as the preference of ants for the pheromone-marked branch over the unmarked branch is reduced from 65%, when it is the less deviating branch, to 53%, when it is the more deviating branch. These results demonstrate that trail asymmetry influences ant decision-making at bifurcations and that this information interacts with trail pheromone presence in a non-hierarchical manner.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonia Forster
- Laboratory of Apiculture & Social Insects, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex Brighton, UK
| | - Tomer J Czaczkes
- Biologie I, Universität Regensburg, Universitätsstraße Regensburg, Germany
| | - Emma Warner
- Laboratory of Apiculture & Social Insects, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex Brighton, UK
| | - Tom Woodall
- Laboratory of Apiculture & Social Insects, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex Brighton, UK
| | - Emily Martin
- Laboratory of Apiculture & Social Insects, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex Brighton, UK
| | - Francis L W Ratnieks
- Laboratory of Apiculture & Social Insects, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex Brighton, UK
| | - M Herberstein
- Laboratory of Apiculture & Social Insects, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex Brighton, UK
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Czaczkes TJ, Schlosser L, Heinze J, Witte V. Ants use directionless odour cues to recall odour-associated locations. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2014. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-014-1710-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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46
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Insights from insects about adaptive social information use. Trends Ecol Evol 2014; 29:177-84. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2014.01.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 125] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2013] [Revised: 09/30/2013] [Accepted: 01/11/2014] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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47
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Cronin AL. Synergy between pheromone trails and quorum thresholds underlies consensus decisions in the ant Myrmecina nipponica. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2013. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-013-1575-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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48
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Planqué R, van den Berg JB, Franks NR. The interplay between scent trails and group-mass recruitment systems in ants. Bull Math Biol 2013; 75:1912-40. [PMID: 23925728 DOI: 10.1007/s11538-013-9876-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2012] [Accepted: 07/16/2013] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Large ant colonies invariably use effective scent trails to guide copious ant numbers to food sources. The success of mass recruitment hinges on the involvement of many colony members to lay powerful trails. However, many ant colonies start off as single queens. How do these same colonies forage efficiently when small, thereby overcoming the hurdles to grow large? In this paper, we study the case of combined group and mass recruitment displayed by some ant species. Using mathematical models, we explore to what extent early group recruitment may aid deployment of scent trails, making such trails available at much smaller colony sizes. We show that a competition between group and mass recruitment may cause oscillatory behaviour mediated by scent trails. This results in a further reduction of colony size to establish trails successfully.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert Planqué
- Department of Mathematics, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands,
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Cronin AL. Conditional use of social and private information guides house-hunting ants. PLoS One 2013; 8:e64668. [PMID: 23741364 PMCID: PMC3669381 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0064668] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2013] [Accepted: 04/17/2013] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Social animals can use both social and private information to guide decision making. While social information can be relatively economical to acquire, it can lead to maladaptive information cascades if attention to environmental cues is supplanted by unconditional copying. Ants frequently employ pheromone trails, a form of social information, to guide collective processes, and this can include consensus decisions made when choosing a place to live. In this study, I examine how house-hunting ants balance social and private information when these information sources conflict to different degrees. Social information, in the form of pre-established pheromone trails, strongly influenced the decision process in choices between equivalent nests, and lead to a reduced relocation time. When trails lead to non-preferred types of nest, however, social information had less influence when this preference was weak and no influence when the preference was strong. These results suggest that social information is vetted against private information during the house-hunting process in this species. Private information is favoured in cases of conflict and this may help insure colonies against costly wrong decisions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam L Cronin
- United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Iwate University, Morioka, Iwate, Japan.
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50
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Bowens SR, Glatt DP, Pratt SC. Visual navigation during colony emigration by the ant Temnothorax curvispinosus [corrected]. PLoS One 2013; 8:e64367. [PMID: 23671713 PMCID: PMC3650068 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0064367] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2013] [Accepted: 04/14/2013] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
Many ants rely on both visual cues and self-generated chemical signals for navigation, but their relative importance varies across species and context. We evaluated the roles of both modalities during colony emigration by Temnothorax rugatulus. Colonies were induced to move from an old nest in the center of an arena to a new nest at the arena edge. In the midst of the emigration the arena floor was rotated 60°around the old nest entrance, thus displacing any substrate-bound odor cues while leaving visual cues unchanged. This manipulation had no effect on orientation, suggesting little influence of substrate cues on navigation. When this rotation was accompanied by the blocking of most visual cues, the ants became highly disoriented, suggesting that they did not fall back on substrate cues even when deprived of visual information. Finally, when the substrate was left in place but the visual surround was rotated, the ants' subsequent headings were strongly rotated in the same direction, showing a clear role for visual navigation. Combined with earlier studies, these results suggest that chemical signals deposited by Temnothorax ants serve more for marking of familiar territory than for orientation. The ants instead navigate visually, showing the importance of this modality even for species with small eyes and coarse visual acuity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sean R. Bowens
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
| | - Daniel P. Glatt
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
| | - Stephen C. Pratt
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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