Coordination of movement via complementary interactions of leaders and followers in termite mating pairs.

ABSTRACT: In collective animal motion, coordination is often achieved by feedback between leaders and followers. For stable coordination, a leader's signals and a follower's responses are hypothesized to be attuned to each other. However, their roles are difficult to disentangle in species with highly coordinated movements, hiding potential diversity of behavioural mechanisms for collective behaviour. Here, we show that two Coptotermes termite species achieve a similar level of coordination via distinct sets of complementary leader-follower interactions. Even though C. gestroi females produce less pheromone than C. formosanus, tandem runs of both species were stable. Heterospecific pairs with C. gestroi males were also stable, but not those with C. formosanus males

SUBMITTER: Mizumoto N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8277464 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature