Emergent collective behavior evolves more rapidly than individual behavior among acorn ant species.

Emergence is a fundamental concept in biology and other disciplines, but whether emergent phenotypes evolve similarly to nonemergent phenotypes is unclear. The hypothesized process of emergent evolution posits that evolutionary change in at least some collective behaviors will differ from evolutionary change in the corresponding intrinsic behaviors of isolated individuals. As a result, collective behavior might evolve more rapidly and diversify more between populations compared to individual behavior.

Synchronized locomotion can improve spatial accessibility inside ant colonies.

Synchronization is a conspicuous form of collective behaviour that is of crucial importance in numerous biological systems. Ant colonies from the genera and form small colonies, typically made up of only a few hundred workers, and exhibit a form of synchronized behaviour where workers inside colonies' nests become active together in rhythmic cycles that have a period of approximately 20-200 min. However, it is not currently known if these synchronized rhythms of locomotion confer any functional benefit to colonies.

Is collective nest site selection in ants influenced by the anchoring effect?

Evolutionary theory predicts that animals make decisions that maximize fitness. If so, they are expected to adhere to principles of rational choice, which a decision-maker must follow to reliably maximize net benefit. For example, evaluation of an option should not be influenced by the quality of other unchosen options.

Noise resistant synchronization and collective rhythm switching in a model of animal group locomotion.

Biology is suffused with rhythmic behaviour, and interacting biological oscillators often synchronize their rhythms with one another. Colonies of some ant species are able to synchronize their activity to fall into coherent bursts, but models of this phenomenon have neglected the potential effects of intrinsic noise and interspecific differences in individual-level behaviour. We investigated the individual and collective activity patterns of two ant species.

Sources of intraspecific variation in the collective tempo and synchrony of ant societies.

Populations of independently oscillating agents can sometimes synchronize. In the context of animal societies, conspicuous synchronization of activity is known in some social insects. However, the causes of variation in synchrony within and between species have received little attention.

Colony size and initial conditions combine to shape colony reunification dynamics.

Group cohesion and collective decision-making are important for many social animals, like social insects, whose societies depend on the coordinated action of individuals to complete collective tasks. A useful model for understanding collective, consensus-driven decision-making is the fluid nest selection dynamics of ant colonies. Certain ant species oscillate between occupying multiple nests simultaneously (polydomy) and reuniting at a single location (monodomy), but little is known about how colonies achieve a consensus around these dynamics.

Symmetry breaking and pivotal individuals during the reunification of ant colonies.

Maintenance of a social group requires the ability to reach consensus when faced with divisive choices. Thus, when migrating colonies of the ant split among multiple sites, they can later reunify on the basis of queen location or differences in site quality. In this study, we found that colonies can reunify even without obvious cues to break the symmetry between sites.

Habitat structure changes the relationships between predator behavior, prey behavior, and prey survival rates.

The individual behavioral traits of predators and prey sometimes determine the outcome of their interactions. Here, we examine whether changes to habitat complexity alter the effects of predator and prey behavior on their survival rates. Specifically, we test whether behavioral traits (activity level, boldness, and perch height) measured in predators and prey or multivariate behavioral volumes best predict the survival rates of both trophic levels in staged mesocosms with contrasting structural complexity.

Social tipping points in animal societies in response to heat stress.

Living systems sometimes experience abrupt tipping points in response to stress. Here we investigate the factors contributing to the appearance of such abrupt state transitions in animal societies. We first construct a mathematical account of how the personality compositions of societies could alter their propensity to shift from calm to violent states in response to thermal stress.