ABSTRACT
Ants, like many other eusocial insects-for example, honeybees, bumblebees, and termites-dominate their environment and adapt their behavior to it. Hölldobler and Wilson (2009) suggest that ants make up around 10% of extant insects worldwide and that ant colonies have been dominant elements of land habitats for at least 100 million years. The main reason for their ecological success is their sophisticated social organization, which is based on cooperation between members of two basic castes, namely a small reproductive caste and a much larger worker caste. The core of this social organization is reciprocal cooperative communication. A number of studies of social insects’ behavior in different cooperative situations has shed light on the cognitive abilities required to accomplish these different tasks. However, prosocial behavior is often overlooked.
