Individual error correction drives responsive self-assembly of army ant scaffolds.

ABSTRACT: An inherent strength of evolved collective systems is their ability to rapidly adapt to dynamic environmental conditions, offering resilience in the face of disruption. This is thought to arise when individual sensory inputs are filtered through local interactions, producing an adaptive response at the group level. To understand how simple rules encoded at the individual level can lead to the emergence of robust group-level (or distributed) control, we examined structures we call "scaffolds," self-assembled by Eciton burchellii army ants on inclined surfaces that aid travel during foraging and migration. We conducted field experiments with wild E. burchellii colonies, manipulating the slope over which ants traversed, to examine the formation of scaffolds and their effects on foraging traff

SUBMITTER: Lutz MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8092576 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature