Ants are renowned for being able-bodied to conduct objects much bigger than themselves , but when they collaborate as a chemical group , they can move even tumid glob of food back to their nest . This collective carrying requires quite a advanced level of coordination , and is seldom interpret in animals other than world and ants . Using longhorn crazy ants as their subjects , researchers decided to find out how the louse contend this .
The feat requires that all the individual ants come up and move the food in unison in fiat to avoid a tug - of - war situation , but this then elicit the issue of how they determine what direction to go in and how they reply to obstruction . Itturns outthat individual “ scout ” ants can unite in the lifting , and aim the grouping by subtly pull in the right direction , and rather than protest , all the other ants follow suit of clothes .
“ The case-by-case pismire has the idea of how to pass an obstacle but lacks the muscle magnate to move the load,”explainedOfer Feinerman , elderly author of the study published inNature Communications , toAgence France - Presse . “ The group is there to magnify the leader ’s strength so that she can really implement her idea . ”
For many animals living in chemical group , the ability to synchronize their apparent motion to all move in one is obviously extremely advantageous . But there are moments when this ability to move as one is in reality a hinderance , as it tighten their flexibility to react to a change environment . This , it appears , is where the scout ants come into play .
Longhorn gaga ants move food for thought are influenced by a scout to go towards the nest ( to the left ) . Credit : Ehud Fonio and Ofer Feinerman / NPG Press / YouTube
“ As far as we can separate , the spotter is no different than the other pismire , ” Feinerman , who is from theWeizmann Institute of Sciencein Israel , saidby email . “ No one designates the leader , she – not he – show herself because she has current noesis about the right direction . ”
But the lookout does n’t stay loss leader for long . If another one amount along and tries to change the instruction of the group , the first lookout man will willingly go with the second and do as she paint a picture . The researchers also report that piddling communicating is actually needed to adjudicate who the drawing card is ; all the scout has to do is turn up and bring together in , and the eternal rest follow .
In addition to this , they bump that there was an optimal sizing for the target that would allow the group to play along the lead of the scout . With enceinte target , the influence of the single ant that cognise the management was pretty much nonexistent . But they found that Cheerio cereal that had been depart in cat food for thought over nighttime ( one of the researchers found that kitty food was particularly attractive to the ants ) was around the perfect size for the lead ant to alter the counselling of the group . The investigator suspect that this is because the object more closely play off the size of it of the entree to the pismire ' nest .
