The cost of re-synchronization in a leaf-cutter ant colony.

ABSTRACT: Biological rhythms are essential components of organisms' physiology and behavior. In social insects, biological rhythms can be studied at varying levels of a colony, revealing interesting aspects about how rhythms arise from the individual and collective levels. Here, by developing a video-tracking software based on machine learning techniques, we investigated the emergent collective rhythms of a leaf-cutter ant colony under laboratory conditions. The colony displayed rhythmic, daily foraging activity, with most of its foraging occurring during the dark phase of the day. The same pattern is found in the leaf-cutting activity. After being exposed to a 6-hour phase shift of the light-dark cycle, the daily rhythm of colony activity resynchronized with the new cycle phase after a few transien

SUBMITTER: Pamplona-Barbosa MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12332190 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature