ABSTRACT

This chapter presents experimental evidence showing that the amount of "noise" during food recruitment communication varies considerably between species, and that "lost" ants, exploring the environment, can discover new food sources and initiate new recruitment with possible advantages for the society. Food recruitment was initiated by offering 1M sucrose solution at 10 cm frail the nest entrance after 4 days of starvation. The chapter demonstrates with the help of a mathematical model, that a certain amount of noise is needed in order to minimize food collection time when a multiple source situation is encountered, and when the sources show some degree of aggregation. It is well known, however, that animal behavior is probabilistic, in particular, ant communication, and that accordingly, only a fraction of recruited ants will actually reach the food source, "lost" ants exploring the environment. Clearly, a recruitment trail is a far better orientation cue for Tapinoma than for Tetramorium.