Mobile Cellular Automata Models of Ant Behavior: Movement Activity of Leptothorax allardycei

Cole, Blaine J.; Cheshire, David

doi:10.1086/285908

Cited by 65 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Such collective behaviours might be regulated either by a centralized control mechanism (for example, in honeybees and Polistes wasps the queen has a dominant role during certain activities (Reeve & Gamboa 1987;Winston & Slessor 1992)) or a distributed control where the local interactions between the individuals determine the collective behaviour (Deneubourg & Goss 1989;Adler & Gordon 1992). The activity cycles which occur within ant colonies of certain species, especially Leptothorax, are an example of distributed control (Franks & Bryant 1987;Franks et al 1990a;Cole 1991;Cole & Hoeg 1996;Cole & Cheshire 1996). Workers tend to be active together and inactive together and there is no evidence that any particular individual acts as a pacemaker.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coupled oscillators and activity waves in ant colonies

Boi

Couzin

Buono

et al. 1999

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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We investigated the phenomenon of activity cycles in ants, taking into account the spatial structure of colonies. In our study species, Leptothorax acervorum, there are two spatially segregated groups in the nest. We developed a model that considers the two groups as coupled oscillators which can produce synchronized activity. By investigating the e¡ects of noise on the model system we predicted how the return of foragers a¡ects activity cycles in ant colonies. We tested these predictions empirically by comparing the activity of colonies under two conditions: when foragers are and are not allowed to return to the nest. The activity of the whole colony and of each group within the colony was studied using image analysis. This allowed us to reveal the spatial pattern of activity wave propagation in ant colonies for the ¢rst time.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coupled oscillators and activity waves in ant colonies

Boi

Couzin

Buono

et al. 1999

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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“…In this context, it was early suggested that social insects might actually use these types of mechanisms to build their nests (29,30) and produce a wide variety of spatiotemporal structures (31)(32)(33)(34). Here we use social insects and their behavioral patterns of organization as our reference system.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial patterns in ant colonies

Théraulaz

Bonabeau

Nicolis

et al. 2002

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

193

156

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The origins of large-scale spatial patterns in biology have been an important source of theoretical speculation since the pioneering work by Turing (1952) on the chemical basis of morphogenesis. Knowing how these patterns emerge and their functional role is important to our understanding of the evolution of biocomplexity and the role played by self organization. However, so far, conclusive evidence for local activation-long-range inhibition mechanisms in real biological systems has been elusive. Here a welldefined experimental and theoretical analysis of the pattern formation dynamics exhibited by clustering behavior in ant colonies is presented. These experiments and a simple mathematical model show that these colonies do indeed use this type of mechanism. All microscopic variables have been measured and provide the first evidence, to our knowledge, for this type of self-organized behavior in complex biological systems, supporting early conjectures about its role in the organization of insect societies.M any biological systems display large-scale features involving some characteristic scale that is much larger than the size of its individual components (1). These structures are observed in a broad range of systems and scales, from animal coats (2), shell patterns (3, 4), and neural structures (5) to the spatial distribution of individuals in ecosystems (6). In many cases, they reflect functionality and adaptation and in all of them, they provide clues for the underlying rules that generate them. In most cases, it is clear that the information available to individual units is gathered from a local neighborhood much smaller than the resulting structures, suggesting some type of amplification mechanism that relies on collective behavior.The first theoretical explanation of these types of structures was suggested in 1952 by Alan Turing (1,7,8). The basic mechanism at work involves local amplification of fluctuations (activation) and long-range inhibition and actually falls within a general class of mechanisms (9-12). These mechanisms have been identified in physical (13) and chemical (14) systems, in ecosystems (2, 6, 10, 15-18) and morphogenesis (2-5, 11, 19-26). In the slime mold (27, 28), the evidence is also strong. Critics have argued that a proof requires the identification and measurement of the microscopic mechanisms at work, and this is obviously a rather difficult task in biology.In this context, it was early suggested that social insects might actually use these types of mechanisms to build their nests (29,30) and produce a wide variety of spatiotemporal structures (31-34). Here we use social insects and their behavioral patterns of organization as our reference system. We follow a standard approach, using a well-defined and controlled experimental setup in which the whole set of parameters can be measured and therefore all of the microscopic rules can be identified. We show that the formation of cemeteries in ants (35-38) falls within the family of local activation-long range inhibition (LALI) processes...

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“…In arthropods, external marking techniques -such as the use of numbered tags (Monnin and Peeters, 1999), dots of paints (Sendova-Franks and Franks, 1993) or wire loops tied around body parts (Mirenda and Vinson, 1979) -are routinely used to individually tag animals within groups. Alternatively, the position of individuals within groups can be automatically extracted from digitalized pictures, but at the cost of losing identity (Cole and Cheshire, 1996). The knowledge of both identity and position usually requires photographing nests of marked animals and analyzing pictures afterwards.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of radio-tagging to map spatial organization and social interactions in insects

Moreau

Arrufat

Latil

et al. 2011

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARY Understanding of the organization of animal societies often requires knowledge of the identity of group members and their spatial location. We propose an original experimental design to track automatically the position of individuals using radio frequency identification technology (RFID). Ants equipped with passive transponders were detected by a reader mounted on a mobile arm moving across the nest surface. We developed an algorithm to accurately extract the positions of individuals moving in two dimensions. Our method was validated on synthetic test cases and then used for characterization of the spatial distribution of ants within nests. This approach provides an amenable system for monitoring large populations of individuals over long periods of time.

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Mobile Cellular Automata Models of Ant Behavior: Movement Activity of Leptothorax allardycei

Cited by 65 publications

References 22 publications

Coupled oscillators and activity waves in ant colonies

Coupled oscillators and activity waves in ant colonies

Spatial patterns in ant colonies

Use of radio-tagging to map spatial organization and social interactions in insects

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