COLLECTIVE DECISION-MAKING THROUGH FOOD RECRUITMENT

A series of experiments shows how the and Lasius niger uses its trail recruitment system to select between two food sources. Simultaneously presented with to 1M sucrose solution it concentrates on one of them. When offered a 1M solution together with a 0.1M solution it selects the richer source, unless the trait to the 0.1M source had become well-developed before the 1M source was introduced. In the same situation, however, the group/mass recruiting ant Tetramorium caespitum uses its more individual transmission of information to switch to the 1M source. A mathematical model describes these processes and its dynamics reflect the experimental results. © 1990 Masson.