How do ant colonies get anything done, when no one is in charge? An ant colony operates without a central control or hierarchy, and no ant directs another. Instead, ants decide what to do based on the rate, rhythm, and pattern of individual encounters and interactions--resulting in a dynamic network that coordinates the functions of the colony. Ant Encounters provides a revealing and accessible look into ant behavior from this complex systems perspective.
Focusing on the moment-to-moment behavior of ant colonies, Deborah Gordon investigates the role of interaction networks in regulating colony behavior and relations among ant colonies. She shows how ant behavior within and between colonies arises from local interactions of individuals, and how interaction networks develop as a colony grows older and larger. The more rapidly ants react to their encounters, the more sensitively the entire colony responds to changing conditions. Gordon explores whether such reactive networks help a colony to survive and reproduce, how natural selection shapes colony networks, and how these structures compare to other analogous complex systems.
Ant Encounters sheds light on the organizational behavior, ecology, and evolution of these diverse and ubiquitous social insects.
Author(s): Deborah M. Gordon
Series: Primers in Complex Systems
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 184
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 8
List of Illustrations......Page 10
Preface......Page 12
1. The Ant Colony as a Complex System......Page 16
The Diversity of Ant Behavior......Page 29
From Individual to Collective Behavior......Page 34
Division of Labor......Page 40
Ants Switch Tasks......Page 45
Age Polyethism......Page 48
What Ants Respond To......Page 52
Task Allocation......Page 56
3. Interaction Networks......Page 60
What Happens at Network Nodes......Page 62
The Pattern of Interaction Is the Message......Page 64
Rate and Memory......Page 72
Individual Variation......Page 78
Species Differences......Page 82
Colony Growth......Page 90
Task Allocation and Colony Size......Page 98
Ecology, Behavior, and Mature Colony Size......Page 105
5. Relations with Neighbors......Page 111
Relations with Neighbors of the Same Species......Page 112
Interactions between Species......Page 122
Invasive Species......Page 127
From Ecology to Behavior......Page 132
Coevolution of Ants and Plants......Page 136
Evolution of Colony Organization......Page 140
Natural Selection in Action......Page 146
7. Modeling Ant Behavior......Page 156
Notes......Page 162
C......Page 180
I......Page 181
W......Page 182
