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Updated: Apr 18, 2026

Collection and Long-Term Maintenance of Leaf-Cutting Ants Atta in Laboratory Conditions
Published on: August 30, 2022
From individual to collective dynamics in Argentine ants (Linepithema humile)
M Vela-Pérez1, M A Fontelos2, S Garnier3
1Universidad Europea de Madrid, C/ Tajo, Villaviciosa de Odón, Madrid 28670, Spain; Service de Physique de l'Etat Condensé, CEA-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette 91191, France.
Abstract:
In this paper we propose a model for the formation of paths in Argentine ants when foraging in an empty arena. Based on experimental observations, we provide a distribution for the random change in direction that they approximately undergo while foraging as a mixture of a Gaussian and a Pareto distribution. By following the principles described in previous work, we consider persistence and reinforcement to create a model for the motion of ants in the plane. Numerical simulations based on this model lead to the formation of branched ant-trails analogous to those observed experimentally.
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