Myrmecol. News 11: 201-214; printable
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.25849/myrmecol.news_011:201
- Open Access: CC BY 4.0
- Year: 2008
- Title: Experimental paradigms for studying cognition and communication in ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
- Journal: Myrmecological News
- Volume: 11
- Pages: 201-214
- Type of contribution: Review Article
- Supplementary material: No
- Abstract: In this review the results of long-term studies of ant cognition and communication by means of an information theoryapproach are summarised, and perspectives for further research are outlined. The main idea of the information theoryapproach is that experimenters "ask" ants to transfer to each other a specific amount of information in order to obtainfood. In the experiments I describe, the information to be transferred by ants concerns a sequence of turns in the maze"binary tree" in one series of experiments, and the number of a branch in comb-like "counting mazes" in the otherseries. This method first of all reveals distant homing in ants, that is, their ability to transfer information about remoteevents. Firstly, it was experimentally demonstrated that in red wood ants and in Formica sanguinea Latreille, 1798distant homing is based on a scout-foragers recruitment system: ants work in constant teams, and a scout shares theinformation on the discovered food only with members of its team. Then, important characteristics of the ants' communication and cognition were evaluated, such as the rate of information transmission, and the potential flexibility ofcommunication systems. Group-retrieving Formica species were shown to be able to grasp regularities, to use them forcoding and "compression" of information, and to add and subtract small numbers to optimise their messages. These intellectual skills can be considered specific cognitive adaptations to the particular architecture of the species' foraging environment. The proposed quantitative method can serve as a universal experimental paradigm for objective investigationsof communication and cognition in ants and other highly social animals.
- Key words: Recruitment, behaviour, intelligence, cognition, communication, information theory, counting, teams, task allocation, scouts, foragers, review.
- Publisher: The Austrian Society of Entomofaunistics
- ISSN: Print: 1994-4136 - Online: 1997-3500