Protocol to obtain long movement trajectories of leaders and followers in ant tandem runs.

Tandem running in ants is a sophisticated form of communication. Precise measurement of movement coordination by the tandem pair can shed light on social interactions. Here, we describe an integrative approach to obtain long movement trajectories of a specific tandem pair within a crowd of ants.

Functional and mechanistic diversity in ant tandem communication.

Communication is fundamental to the organization of animal societies, often resulting in the convergent evolution of similar social behavior across lineages. However, this similarity may conceal underlying functional and mechanistic differences. Here we combined network and information-theoretic analysis to quantify how tandem recruitment is distinguishable between two ant genera, and .

Resilience of native ant community against invasion of exotic ants after anthropogenic disturbances of forest habitats.

The positive association between disturbances and biological invasions is a widely observed ecological pattern in the Anthropocene. Such patterns have been hypothesized to be driven by the superior competitive ability of invaders or by modified environments, as well as by the interaction of these factors. An experimental study that tests these hypotheses is usually less feasible, especially in protected nature areas.

Individual experience influences reconstruction of division of labour under colony disturbance in a queenless ant species.

Background: Division of labour (DOL) is ubiquitous across biological hierarchies. In eusocial insects, DOL is often characterized by age-related task allocation, but workers can flexibly change their tasks, allowing for DOL reconstruction in fluctuating environments. Behavioural change driven by individual experience is regarded as a key to understanding this task flexibility.