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Improvement in collective performance with experience in ants

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Abstract

We show that entire ant colonies can improve their collective performance progressively when they repeat the same process. Colonies of Leptothorax albipennis can reduce their total emigration times over successive emigrations. We show that this improvement is based on experience and some memory-like process, rather than a coincidental developmental change or an increased general level of arousal. We demonstrate that the benefits of experience can be lost (i.e. forgotten) if the interval between successive emigrations is too long. We also show that the benefits of experience are more likely to be retained over a longer period if the collective performance has been repeated several times. This is a new demonstration of a process akin to learning in ants and we briefly discuss how it may involve not only improvements in individual performance but also improvements in the ways in which the ants interact with one another.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Andy Bennett, Anna Dornhaus, Jay Denny, Martin Giurfa and Scott Powell for many constructive discussions of this study. We also thank the Associate Editor Liselotte Sundström and anonymous reviewers of this manuscript for their critical and helpful comments. The experiments reported in this study complied with the current laws of the United Kingdom.

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Elizabeth A. Langridge & Nigel R. Franks

  2. Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Coldharbour Lane, BS16 1QY, Bristol, U.K.

    Ana B. Sendova-Franks

Authors
  1. Elizabeth A. Langridge
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  2. Nigel R. Franks
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  3. Ana B. Sendova-Franks
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nigel R. Franks.

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Communicated by L. Sundström

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Langridge, E.A., Franks, N.R. & Sendova-Franks, A.B. Improvement in collective performance with experience in ants. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 56, 523–529 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-004-0824-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-004-0824-3

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