Loreto Raquel G, Hart Adam G, Pereira Thairine M, Freitas Mayara L R, Hughes David P, Elliot Simon L
Naturwissenschaften. 2013 Oct;100(10):957-63. doi: 10.1007/s00114-013-1096-4.
Trail-making ants lay pheromones on the substrate to define paths between foraging areas and the nest. Combined with the chemistry of these pheromone trails and the physics of evaporation, trail-laying and trail-following behaviours provide ant colonies with the quickest routes to food. In relatively uniform environments, such as that provided in many laboratory studies of trail-making ants, the quickest route is also often the shortest route. Here, we show that carpenter ants (Camponotus rufipes), in natural conditions, are able to make use of apparent obstacles in their environment to assist in finding the fastest routes to food. These ants make extensive use of fallen branches, twigs and lianas as bridges to build their trails. These bridges make trails significantly longer than their straight line equivalents across the forest floor, but we estimate that ants spend less than half the time to reach the same point, due to increased carriage speed across the bridges. We also found that these trails, mainly composed of bridges, are maintained for months, so they can be characterized as trunk trails. We suggest that pheromone-based foraging trail networks in field conditions are likely to be structured by a range of potentially complex factors but that even then, speed remains the most important consideration.
铺路蚁会在地面上释放信息素，以确定觅食区域与蚁巢之间的路径。结合这些信息素轨迹的化学性质和蒸发的物理原理，铺路和循迹行为为蚁群提供了获取食物的最快路径。在相对均匀的环境中，比如在许多关于铺路蚁的实验室研究中所设置的环境，最快的路径通常也是最短的路径。在此，我们表明，在自然条件下，木工蚁（红足弓背蚁）能够利用其环境中明显的障碍物来帮助找到获取食物的最快路径。这些蚂蚁大量利用掉落的树枝、嫩枝和藤本植物作为桥梁来构建它们的路径。这些桥梁使得路径比直接穿过森林地面的直线路径长得多，但我们估计，由于在桥上移动速度加快，蚂蚁到达同一点所花费的时间不到一半。我们还发现，这些主要由桥梁构成的路径能维持数月之久，所以它们可被视为主干道。我们认为，在野外条件下，基于信息素的觅食路径网络可能由一系列潜在的复杂因素构成，但即便如此，速度仍是最重要的考量因素。
