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Bull Math Biol

Title:		The interplay between scent trails and group-mass recruitment systems in ants
Author(s):		Planque R; van den Berg JB; Franks NR;
Address:		"Department of Mathematics, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, r.planque@vu.nl"
Journal Title:		Bull Math Biol
Year:		2013
Volume:		20130808
Issue:		10
Page Number:		1912 - 1940
DOI:		10.1007/s11538-013-9876-8
ISSN/ISBN:		1522-9602 (Electronic) 0092-8240 (Linking)
Abstract:		"Large ant colonies invariably use effective scent trails to guide copious ant numbers to food sources. The success of mass recruitment hinges on the involvement of many colony members to lay powerful trails. However, many ant colonies start off as single queens. How do these same colonies forage efficiently when small, thereby overcoming the hurdles to grow large? In this paper, we study the case of combined group and mass recruitment displayed by some ant species. Using mathematical models, we explore to what extent early group recruitment may aid deployment of scent trails, making such trails available at much smaller colony sizes. We show that a competition between group and mass recruitment may cause oscillatory behaviour mediated by scent trails. This results in a further reduction of colony size to establish trails successfully"
Keywords:		"Animal Communication Animals Ants/*physiology Computational Biology Feeding Behavior/physiology Mathematical Concepts *Models, Biological Odorants Pheromones/physiology Population Dynamics Social Behavior;"
Notes:		"MedlinePlanque, Robert van den Berg, Jan Bouwe Franks, Nigel R eng 2013/08/09 Bull Math Biol. 2013 Oct; 75(10):1912-40. doi: 10.1007/s11538-013-9876-8. Epub 2013 Aug 8"