Consensus decision making in the ant Myrmecina nipponica: house-hunters combine pheromone trails with quorum responses

Cronin, Adam L.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.08.036

Cited by 29 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Ants use trail pheromones to recruit nestmates to new nest sites (22,66,69), as do stingless bees and wasps (83). Temnothorax albipennis workers even use pheromone trails to assess potential nest Table 1 …”

Section: The Many Roles Of Trail Pheromones In the Organization Of Somentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Trail pheromones are used in many contexts of colony life apart from bringing workers to a food source. They are used during house hunting (e.g., 22), for recruitment to battlegrounds and escape (16,64), or to guide the building of tunnels (110). They can be used to inform individuals about their travel direction (81) or to measure the size of potential nest cavities (92).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Trail Pheromones: An Integrative View of Their Role in Social Insect Colony Organization

Czaczkes

Grüter

Ratnieks

2015

Annu. Rev. Entomol.

184

159

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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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Section: The Many Roles Of Trail Pheromones In the Organization Of Somentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trail Pheromones: An Integrative View of Their Role in Social Insect Colony Organization

Czaczkes

Grüter

Ratnieks

2015

Annu. Rev. Entomol.

184

159

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“…Brood transport does not begin until a consensus decision has been achieved, and this is dependent on achievement of a quorum of individuals at the new site [47,48]. The relocation process in M. nipponica can be divided into three phases [48]. The 'discovery' phase is defined as the time from removal of the home nest to the first ant entering the new nest.…”

Section: Tracking Of Individuals During Relocationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This triggers a phase shift, and individuals rapidly undergo a behavioural switch to conclude the relocation marked by the transport of brood to the new site. Brood transport does not begin until a consensus decision has been achieved, and this is dependent on achievement of a quorum of individuals at the new site [47,48]. The relocation process in M. nipponica can be divided into three phases [48].…”

Section: Tracking Of Individuals During Relocationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ants work harder during consensus decision-making in small groups

Cronin

Stumpe²

2014

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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Individuals derive many benefits from being social, one of which is improved accuracy of decision-making, the so-called 'wisdom of the crowds' effect. This advantage arises because larger groups can pool information from more individuals. At present, limited empirical data indicate that larger groups outperform smaller ones during consensus decision-making in human and non-human animals. Inaccurate decisions can lead to significant costs, and we might therefore expect individuals in small groups to employ mechanisms to compensate for the lack of numbers. Small groups may be able to maintain decision accuracy if individuals are better informed than those in larger groups and/or by increasing the proportion of the group involved in collective decision-making relative to larger groups. In this study, we use interactive computer vision software to investigate individual contributions to consensus decision-making during house-hunting in different sized groups of the ant Myrmecina nipponica. We show that individuals in small colonies invest greater effort in the consensus decision process than those in large colonies and should be better informed as a result. This may act to ameliorate the limitations of group size, but could leave smaller groups more susceptible to additional stresses.

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Individual Activity Level and Mobility Patterns of Ants Within Nest Site

Shoji

2018

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

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Consensus decision making in the ant Myrmecina nipponica: house-hunters combine pheromone trails with quorum responses

Cited by 29 publications

References 42 publications

Trail Pheromones: An Integrative View of Their Role in Social Insect Colony Organization

Trail Pheromones: An Integrative View of Their Role in Social Insect Colony Organization

Ants work harder during consensus decision-making in small groups

Individual Activity Level and Mobility Patterns of Ants Within Nest Site

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