Long-Term Yield from Harvester Ant Colonies: Implications for Horned lizard Foraging Strategy

Ecology ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 1077-1086 ◽  
Author(s):  
James C. Munger
Keyword(s):  
Foraging Strategy ◽  
Ant Colonies ◽  
Harvester Ant

scholarly journals 3D mapping of disease in ant societies reveals a strategy of a specialized parasite

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raquel G Loreto ◽  
Simon L Elliot ◽  
Mayara LR Freitas ◽  
Thairine M Pereira ◽  
David P Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Disease Spread ◽  
Social Immunity ◽  
Ant Colonies ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Insect Societies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Disease Free ◽  
Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis ◽  
Disease Present

Despite the widely held position that the social insects have evolved effective ways to limit infectious disease spread, many pathogens and parasites do attack insect societies. Maintaining a disease-free nest environment is an important evolutionary feature, but since workers have to leave the nest to forage they are routinely exposed to disease. Here we show that despite effective social immunity, in which workers act collectively to reduce disease inside the nest, 100% of studied ant colonies of Camponotus rufipes in a Brazilian Rainforest were infected by the specialized fungal parasite Ophiocordyceps unilateralis s.l. Not only is disease present for all colonies but long-term dynamics over 20 months revealed disease is a permanent feature. Using 3D maps, we showed the parasite optimizes its transmission by controlling workers’ behavior to die on the doorstep of the colony, where susceptible foragers are predictable in time and space. Therefore, despite social immunity, specialized diseases of ants have evolved effective strategies to exploit insect societies.

Development of harvester ant colonies alters soil chemistry

2004 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 797-804 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Wagner ◽  
Jeremy B Jones ◽  
Deborah M Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Soil Chemistry ◽  
Ant Colonies ◽  
Harvester Ant

scholarly journals Nest site and weather affect the personality of harvester ant colonies

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 1022-1029 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noa Pinter-Wollman ◽  
Deborah M. Gordon ◽  
Susan Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Nest Site ◽  
Ant Colonies ◽  
Harvester Ant

scholarly journals The effect of neighbours on the mortality of harvester ant colonies

1998 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah M. Gordon ◽  
Alan Kulig
Keyword(s):  
Ant Colonies ◽  
Harvester Ant

scholarly journals Nest architecture shapes the collective behaviour of harvester ants

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 20150695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noa Pinter-Wollman
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Nest Architecture ◽  
Harvester Ants ◽  
Spatial Constraints ◽  
Ant Colonies ◽  
Harvester Ant

Structures influence how individuals interact and, therefore, shape the collective behaviours that emerge from these interactions. Here I show that the structure of a nest influences the collective behaviour of harvester ant colonies. Using network analysis, I quantify nest architecture and find that as chamber connectivity and redundancy of connections among chambers increase, so does a colony's speed of recruitment to food. Interestingly, the volume of the chambers did not influence speed of recruitment, suggesting that the spatial organization of a nest has a greater impact on collective behaviour than the number of workers it can hold. Thus, by changing spatial constraints on social interactions organisms can modify their behaviour and impact their fitness.

Long-term assessment reveals the hidden and hiding effects of experimental stress on ant colonies

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adele Bordoni ◽  
Mattia Aaron Miroddi ◽  
Leonardo Dapporto ◽  
Stefano Turillazzi
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Stress ◽  
Ant Colonies

Analysis of Ant Foraging Algorithms

1998 ◽  
Vol 06 (04) ◽  
pp. 315-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. F. Britton ◽  
T. R. Stickland ◽  
N. R. Franks
Keyword(s):  
Hierarchical Control ◽  
Simple Algorithm ◽  
Computer Time ◽  
Foraging Strategy ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Ant Colonies ◽  
Small Diffusion ◽  
Ant Foraging ◽  
Simplifying Assumptions ◽  
The Individual

We consider some models of ant foraging and recruitment behaviour that depend on each individual ant following a simple algorithm. Self-organisation enables the colony as a whole to establish a foraging strategy in the absence of any hierarchical control. In this paper we investigate how the effectiveness of such a foraging strategy depends on the persistence of the signals used by the individual ants and on the errors they make in following such signals. The use of inhibitory as well as excitatory signals is considered, and shown to be extremely effective in certain circumstances. This is interesting, as such signals have never been observed in real ant colonies. Such models are often investigated by simulation, but we approach them from the point of view of statistical mechanics. Looked at another way, which yields some insight, we approximate the stochastic process that models the system by a diffusion process with small diffusion parameter. This approach does not replace simulation, but supplements it. Its advantage is that it can elucidate the role of parameters more clearly and using much less computer time than simulation, but its disadvantage is that many simplifying assumptions must be made before the problem is amenable to analytic treatment.

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