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How experienced individuals contribute to an improvement in collective performance in ants

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Abstract

Certain groups of organisms are capable of improving their collective performance with experience. In a recent study, we demonstrated that, over successive emigrations, colonies of the ant Temnothorax albipennis are able to improve their collective performance by reducing the time taken to complete an emigration (Langridge et al., Behav Ecol Sociobiol 56:523–529, 2004). In this paper, by recording the performance of individually marked workers during repeated emigrations, we were able to analyse some of the ways in which time gains are achieved. We found that: (1) those transporters that also transported in the preceding emigration began to transport earlier in the current emigration and, in the majority of emigrations, transported more items than those transporters that had not transported in the preceding emigration; (2) the time that elapsed before the first item was transported into the new nest reduced over successive emigrations, and this first item was, in the majority of emigrations, carried by a transporter that had also transported in the preceding emigration; (3) the number of adults that were transported reduced over successive emigrations. Our results strongly suggest that the behaviour of transporters that also transported in a preceding emigration may be modified as a result of their experience and that, consequently, their efforts in the next emigration make a major contribution to the improved performance of the colony as a whole.

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Acknowledgement

We wish to thank Antony Aleksiev, Stefanie Berghoff, François-Xavier Dechaume-Moncharmont and Roderich Groβ for constructive comments on this manuscript. The experiment reported in this study complied with the current laws of the UK.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Behavioural Biology and School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1UG, UK

    Elizabeth A. Langridge & Nigel R. Franks

  2. School of Mathematical Sciences, CEMS, University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK

    Ana B. Sendova-Franks

Authors
  1. Elizabeth A. Langridge
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  2. Ana B. Sendova-Franks
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  3. Nigel R. Franks
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Correspondence to Nigel R. Franks.

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Communicated by M. Beekman

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Langridge, E.A., Sendova-Franks, A.B. & Franks, N.R. How experienced individuals contribute to an improvement in collective performance in ants. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 62, 447–456 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-007-0472-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-007-0472-5

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