Nicolis S C, Detrain C, Demolin D, Deneubourg J L
Centre for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Campus Plaine, CP231, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.
Bull Math Biol. 2003 Sep;65(5):795-808. doi: 10.1016/S0092-8240(03)00040-5.
Amplifying communication is a characteristic of group-living animals. This study is concerned with food recruitment by chemical means, known to be associated with foraging in most ant colonies but also with defence or nest moving. A stochastic approach of collective choices made by ants faced with different sources is developed to account for the fluctuations inherent to the recruitment process. It has been established that ants are able to optimize their foraging by selecting the most rewarding source. Our results not only confirm that selection is the result of a trail modulation according to food quality but also show the existence of an optimal quantity of laid pheromone for which the selection of a source is at the maximum, whatever the difference between the two sources might be. In terms of colony size, large colonies more easily focus their activity on one source. Moreover, the selection of the rich source is more efficient if many individuals lay small quantities of pheromone, instead of a small group of individuals laying a higher trail amount. These properties due to the stochasticity of the recruitment process can be extended to other social phenomena in which competition between different sources of information occurs.
放大通讯是群居动物的一个特征。本研究关注通过化学方式进行的食物招募，这在大多数蚁群中既与觅食有关，也与防御或巢穴迁移有关。针对蚂蚁面对不同食物源时做出的集体选择，开发了一种随机方法，以解释招募过程中固有的波动。已经确定，蚂蚁能够通过选择最有回报的食物源来优化它们的觅食行为。我们的结果不仅证实了选择是根据食物质量对踪迹进行调节的结果，还表明存在一个最佳的信息素释放量，无论两个食物源之间的差异如何，在这个释放量下对食物源的选择都是最大的。就蚁群规模而言，大蚁群更容易将它们的活动集中在一个食物源上。此外，如果许多个体释放少量信息素，而不是一小群个体释放更高剂量的踪迹，对丰富食物源的选择会更有效。由于招募过程的随机性而产生的这些特性可以扩展到其他存在不同信息源之间竞争的社会现象中。
