Decision making in ant foragers (Lasius niger) facing conflicting private and social information
Decision making in ant foragers (Lasius niger) facing conflicting private and social information
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DOI：
10.1007/s00265-010-1020-2
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发表时间：
2011-02-01
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Ratnieks, Francis L. W.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Grueter, Christoph;Czaczkes, Tomer J.;Ratnieks, Francis L. W.
许多蚂蚁物种的觅食者使用信息素踪迹来引导筑巢伙伴找到食物来源。在觅食过程中，个体工蚁还可以学习通往食物来源的路线。大量招募蚂蚁Lasius niger的觅食者利用信息素踪迹和记忆来定位食物来源。因此，有经验的觅食者在小径分叉处可能会在社会信息(踪迹信息素)和私人信息(路线记忆)之间发生冲突。我们测试了在信息素踪迹的强度和之前访问食物来源的次数不同的情况下，面临这样的信息冲突的尼日尔L.niger觅食者的决策。采集者很快就学会了在T形分叉口找到食物来源，74.6%的人在第一次造访后正确选择，95.3%的人在三次造访后正确选择。信息素踪迹对蚂蚁选择行为的影响较小，只有61.6%和70.2%的蚂蚁选择了有1个或20个取食者标记的分枝，而选择了没有标记的分枝。当私人信息和社交信息之间存在冲突时，记忆会在之前访问过一次食物来源后覆盖信息素。大多数蚂蚁(82%-100%)选择了它们在以前的觅食旅行中收集食物的树枝，比例取决于以前旅行的次数(1比3)，而不是信息素踪迹的强度(1比20)。此外，在分支中的一个分支上存在信息素踪迹对有经验的蚂蚁选择正确分支(没有信息素的分支)所需的时间没有影响。这些结果表明，在有经验的黑曲霉觅食活动中，私人信息(导航记忆)主导着社会信息(化学尾巴)的定向决策。
Foragers of many ant species use pheromone trails to guide nestmates to food sources. During foraging, individual workers can also learn the route to a food source. Foragers of the mass-recruiting ant Lasius niger use both pheromone trails and memory to locate a food source. As a result, an experienced forager can have a conflict between social information (trail pheromones) and private information (route memory) at trail bifurcations. We tested decision making in L. niger foragers facing such an informational conflict in situations where both the strength of the pheromone trail and the number of previous visits to the food source varied. Foragers quickly learned the branch at a T bifurcation that leads to a food source, with 74.6% choosing correctly after one previous visit and 95.3% after three visits. Pheromone trails had a weaker effect on choice behaviour of na < ve ants, with only 61.6% and 70.2% choosing the branch that had been marked by one or 20 foragers versus an unmarked branch. When there was a conflict between private and social information, memory overrides pheromone after just one previous visit to a food source. Most ants, 82-100%, chose the branch where they had collected food during previous foraging trips, with the proportion depending on the number of previous trips (1 v. 3) but not on the strength of the pheromone trail (1 v. 20). In addition, the presence of a pheromone trail at one branch in a bifurcation had no effect on the time it took an experienced ant to choose the correct branch (the branch without pheromone). These results suggest that private information (navigational memory) dominates over social information (chemical tail) in orientation decisions during foraging activities in experienced L. niger foragers.