Social insect colony as a biological regulatory system: modelling information flow in dominance networks.

ABSTRACT: Social insects provide an excellent platform to investigate flow of information in regulatory systems since their successful social organization is essentially achieved by effective information transfer through complex connectivity patterns among the colony members. Network representation of such behavioural interactions offers a powerful tool for structural as well as dynamical analysis of the underlying regulatory systems. In this paper, we focus on the dominance interaction networks in the tropical social wasp Ropalidia marginata-a species where behavioural observations indicate that such interactions are principally responsible for the transfer of information between individuals about their colony needs, resulting in a regulation of their own activities. Our research reveals that the d

SUBMITTER: Nandi AK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4223920 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature