Verification of mathematical models of response threshold through statistical characterisation of the foraging activity in ant societies.

ABSTRACT: The concept of response threshold (RT) has been developed to explain task allocation in social insect colonies, wherein individual workers engage in tasks depending on their responsiveness to the task-related stimulus. Moreover, a mathematical model of RT has been proposed to explain data obtained from task allocation experiments; however, its applicability range warrants clarification through adequate quantitative analysis. Hence, we used an automatic measuring system to count passage events between a nest chamber and a foraging arena in five colonies of ants, Camponotus japonicus. The events were measured using radio-frequency identification tags attached to all workers of each colony. Here, we examined the detailed forms of i) labour distribution during foraging among workers in each co

SUBMITTER: Yamanaka O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6586672 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature