DISTURBANCE ASSOCIATED TRAIL ABANDONMENT IN SOUTHERN FIRE ANTS

Abstract

Ants are known to use highly sophisticated techniques during foraging in order to optimize efficiency and reduce energy expenditure. This study investigated how Solenopsis xyloni (southern fire ant) workers responded to a gap in an established pheromone trail. Specifically, it determined whether individual foragers abandoned the trail after encountering a gap, and whether they successfully located a feeder if they did not abandon. Previous studies have investigated the navigational capabilities and trail laying strategies of ants. This research added context to those studies by examining the individual behavior of ants when excluded from the social memory. The setup for this experiment consisted of a T-shaped maze with a paper coating that could be replaced to make an artificial gap in a pheromone trail. Experimental trials were compared with control trials, where the pheromone trail remained intact. Three hypotheses were posited regarding the potential behavior of the ants. The data collected supported the first hypothesis, which predicted ants would generally abandon the pheromone trail upon encountering a perturbation. Some ants continued to search the setup when confronted with the gap, but showed less than a 50% success rate in locating the feeder, indicating that Solenopsis workers are not adept at individual foraging. Differences in forager behavior regarding abandonment may provide evidence of ant "personalities types" which can promote group success. Understanding how such systems operate is an important step for human applications in fields such as technology and engineering. The implications of this study can be used for developing more advanced swarm robots and more sophisticated antivirus programs.