Some aspects of individual behaviour during nest moving in the ant Tapinoma erraticum

Tapinoma erraticum workers change their nest site if disturbed. Fewer than half of them displace the brood, with varying degrees of efficiency. In order to determine individual reactivity, the following measurements were carried out on each ant during a removal test: (1) seizures of larvae with the mandibles, (2) journeys between the two nests, (3) functional transports. A large number of seizures and a more rapid transport response are poorly correlated with high removal activity. In this situation, the journeys made between the two nests appear independent of transport activity. Each transporting worker was observed to show a characteristic transport rate which may vary during the test period. The extreme heterogeneity of all aspects of individual responses illustrates the probabilistic nature of the behaviour of social insects.