2024-03-28T17:50:43Zhttp://digital.csic.es/dspace-oai/requestoai:digital.csic.es:10261/562962022-06-15T09:25:25Zcom_10261_88com_10261_8col_10261_341
Franks, N.R.
Richardson, T. O.
Keir, S.
Inge, S. J.
Bartumeus, Frederic
Sendova-Franks, A. B.
2012-09-13T12:14:42Z
2012-09-13T12:14:42Z
2010
Journal of Experimental Biology 213 (10) : 1697-1708 (2010)
0022-0949
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/56296
10.1242/jeb.031880
1477-9145
Tandem runs are a form of recruitment in ants. During a tandem run, a single leader teaches one follower the route to important
resources such as sources of food or better nest sites. In the present study, we investigate what tandem leaders and followers
do, in the context of nest emigration, if their partner goes missing. Our experiments involved removing either leaders or followers
at set points during tandem runs. Former leaders first stand still and wait for their missing follower but then most often proceed
alone to the new nest site. By contrast, former followers often first engage in a Brownian search, for almost exactly the time that
their former leader should have waited for them, and then former followers switch to a superdiffusive search. In this way, former
followers first search their immediate neighbourhood for their lost leader before becoming ever more wide ranging so that in the
absence of their former leader they can often find the new nest, re-encounter the old one or meet a new leader. We also show that
followers gain useful information even from incomplete tandem runs. These observations point to the important principle that
sophisticated communication behaviours may have evolved as anytime algorithms, i.e. procedures that are beneficial even if they
do not run to completion.
eng
closedAccess
Search patterns
Anytime algorithms
Temnothorax albipennis
Tandem runs
Superdiffusive
Ant search strategies after interrupted tandem runs
artículo