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Ant workers exhibit specialization and memory during raft formation.

Amaury Avril¹, Jessica Purcell^2,3, Michel Chapuisat²

¹Department of Ecology and Evolution, Biophore, UNIL-Sorge, University of Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland. amaury.avril@unil.ch.

Die Naturwissenschaften

|April 9, 2016

Summary

Social insects like ants exhibit task specialization during self-assembly. Past experience, even with brood, influences their collective behavior and raft formation in subsequent events.

Keywords:

Ants Collective behaviour Formicinae Rafting Self-assemblage Task specialization

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Area of Science:

Behavioral Ecology
Collective Behavior
Social Insects

Background:

Social insects exhibit complex collective behaviors, including self-assembly into structures like rafts.
Understanding individual behavioral variation is crucial for comprehending collective task achievement.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate task specialization in ant raft construction.
To determine the role of past experience in shaping self-assembly behavior.
To examine the influence of brood presence on raft formation.

Main Methods:

Studied *Formica selysi* ant workers subjected to simulated floods.
Monitored individual positions within ant rafts over two trials.
Observed behavioral changes with and without the presence of brood.

Main Results:

Ant workers displayed consistent positional specialization within rafts.
The presence of brood significantly altered worker positions and raft shape.
Prior experience with brood influenced raft construction in subsequent trials without brood.

Conclusions:

Individual specialization and memory are critical for effective self-assembly in social insects.
Ants demonstrate adaptive behavioral plasticity in response to environmental cues and past experiences.
This research provides insights into the mechanisms underlying collective behavior and structure formation.