Amplification of individual preferences in a social context:: the case of wall-following in ants

被引:94
作者
Dussutour, A
Deneubourg, JL
Fourcassié, V
机构
[1] Univ Toulouse 3, Ctr Rech Cognit Anim, CNRS, UMR 5169, F-31062 Toulouse, France
[2] Free Univ Brussels, Serv Ecol Sociale, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
关键词
ants; Formicidae; preference; amplification; recruitment; wall-following;
D O I
10.1098/rspb.2004.2990
中图分类号
Q [生物科学];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
Amplification processes are an essential component of the collective phenomena observed in social and gregarious species. In this paper, we tested the hypothesis that a weak individual wall-following tendency in ants can be amplified by communication through chemical trails, leading to a response to the spatial heterogeneities at the collective level. In our experiments, ants had to cross a diamond-shaped bridge along either of two branches of equal length to get from their nest to a food source. Two types of bridge were used: control bridges without a wall, and experimental bridges equipped with a wall along the inner edge of one of their branches. On the control bridges, ants collectively chose either branch of the bridge in most experiments, whereas on the experimental bridges, the branch with the wall was selected almost systematically. A mathematical model is proposed to assess, in various conditions, the importance of the amplification effect of the chemical trail on the wall-following tendency observed at the individual level. The model highlights the fact that the amplification process can lead to an overestimation of individual capabilities and, thus, that the results of experiments investigating individual preferences at group level in animals must be interpreted with caution.
引用
收藏
页码:705 / 714
页数:10
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