Ants are one of the very few animals that are capable of managing things jointly in order to carry loads much heavier than an individual of their species.
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The team of researchers found that a “leader ant” noticed that its group carrying a load was going off-course and thus sent out a subtle signal to them to change their direction: it tugged at a different direction and this was enough for the others to respond positively. The others then fell in line rather than resisting the change.
For their new research published in the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday, Ofer Feinerman, from the Department of Physics of Complex Systems at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and colleagues tracked groups of longhorn insane ants as the insects tried to transport bits of food towards their nest.
According to Feinerman, it can be said that the scout is not different from the other ants and no one selects the leader and no one designates herself for the reason that she is having current knowledge regarding the right direction.
One of the greatest challenges of this kind of collective work is finding the balance between synchronized action and flexibility that would keep the group safe and the task completed.
Animals that live in groups such as sheep, fish etc. have evolved the ability to act in concert, a quality that is essential for coordinated movement.
This ability is what helps the ants pull in the same direction and not apart. The newly-discovered trait of responding to the “ant scouts” which carry information is shown to cancel the disadvantages that might arise with “behaviour conformism”.
When out of their nest, workers of the longhorn mad ant (Paratrechina longicornis) band together toward a common goal: to bring food back to the nest.
“While all the ants “row” in the same direction that the boat is moving, the leader rows in the direction she knows to be correct”, said the author.
The researchers speculate that an ant temporarily assumes leadership simply by showing up, and that “she does not need to communicate her presence”, Feinerman added.
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For the experiments, the scientists used Cheerio cereal that had been stored in a bag of cat food overnight to make it attractive to the ants.
