Abstract
Workers of the speciesLeptothorax acervorum show age-polyethism, they start their life as broodworkers and later on they become nestworkers and foragers. Nestworkers and foragers of this ant species are inactive for 72% and 15% of the total time respectively. The short bursts of activity within the nest do not occur randomly but are synchronized so that the whole nest population exhibits nonperiodic pulses of activity: the ants were seen to wake each other actively.
In addition starvation experiments were done to assess whether ants react upon food availability. In appeared that during a longlasting period of starvation the proportion of active ants in the nest is at a higher approximately constant level.
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Franks, N.R., Bryant, S., Griffiths, R. et al. Synchronization of the behaviour within nests of the antleptothorax acervorum (fabricius)—I. Discovering the phenomenon and its relation to the level of starvation. Bltn Mathcal Biology 52, 597–612 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02462100
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02462100