A Pioneering Study of the Architecture of Ant Nests

因为它们是在地下，地下蚂蚁的巢穴在很大程度上是看不见的和未知的。 首席研究员开发了石膏，蜡和金属铸造方法，揭示了蚂蚁巢穴的显着变化，美丽和物种典型结构。在这些巢穴中，殖民地是自我组织的，因此最年轻的工蚁通常与幼蚁一起靠近底部，而最年长的工蚁则靠近或位于表面。 对佛罗里达收获蚁的野外和实验室实验将解决三个一般性问题：（1）蚂蚁如何通过自组织挖掘巢穴？ 是什么样的行为程序创造了这个惊人的建筑？ (2)殖民地通过什么线索在巢穴空间内组织自己？先前探测到的二氧化碳梯度是否为蚂蚁提供了深度线索，或者它们是否相互响应以创建观察到的空间布局？ (3)建筑的特定特征或建筑作为一个整体是否会影响殖民地的功能（如生产或效率），如果是，通过什么机制？ 这是对社会昆虫生物学一个关键的未知方面的开创性研究。蚁巢的模型是自组织行为的精确物理记录，可以很容易地进行研究。 这些实验将展示一个自组织的自治代理集体（蚂蚁工人）如何使用简单的规则来产生复杂的结果（巢穴）。 这些鸟巢模型已经并将继续在一些公共博物馆展出，让公众了解它们的神奇和美丽。研究生和本科生将接受现场和实验室实验的培训。这个项目的更广泛的影响来自于当前对自组织的强烈兴趣，从计算机科学和机器人技术到一些大规模和小规模的人类社会和经济现象。

Because they are below ground, the nests of subterranean ants are largely unseen and unknown. The principle investigator has developed plaster, wax and metal casting methods that have revealed the remarkable variation, beauty and species-typical structure of ant nests. Within these nests, the colony is self-organized such that the youngest workers are generally near the bottom with the brood, and the oldest near or on the surface. Field and laboratory experiments on the Florida harvester ant will address three general questions: (1) How do the ants excavate their nests through self-organization? What behavioral programs operate to create this amazing architecture? (2) Through what cues does the colony organize itself within the nest space? Does the previously detected carbon dioxide gradient provide depth cues to the ants, or do they respond to each other to create the observed spatial arrangement? (3) Do particular features of the architecture, or the architecture as a whole affect colony functions (such as production or efficiency), and if so, through what mechanisms? This is a pioneering study of a crucial, unknown aspect of social insect biology. A cast of an ant nest is an exact physical record of self-organized behavior that can be studied with ease. These experiments will show how a self-organized collective of autonomous agents (ant workers) use simple rules to produce a complex outcome (the nest). The nest casts have and will continue to be displayed in a number of public museums, exposing the public to their wonder and beauty. Graduate and undergraduate students will receive training in field and laboratory experimentation. Broader impacts of this project derive from the current intense interest in self-organization, in fields spanning from computer science and robotics to a number of large- and small-scale human social and economic phenomena.