Grand Séminaire d'Institut

Vendredi 8 Septembre 2017 à 11h00.

Quantifying ant's activity: from foraging to panic

''Ants constitute a paradigm of the so-called "swarm intelligence": simple-minded individuals, by following a set of rules dictating their interacion with nestmates and the environment, are able to perform very complex tasks, and to guarantee the survival of the colony. In this talk, we first present an experimental quantification of the foraging behavior of the leaf-cutter ant Atta insularis, and propose a model based on differential equations to understand how the foraging activity is connected with the day-night cycles. Secondly, we experimentally examine the behaviour of panicked ants, expressed in their ability to escape from a closed arena with two symmetrical exits. The symmetry breaking observed in the escape of the ants is understood by means of a simple computational model where panic is assumed to trigger a "follow-the-crowd" behaviour on each individual. Finally, we demonstrate experimentally by the first time that "danger information" can be transmitted through a physical barrier from an arena containing panicked ants to nestmates located into a "safe arena". Our work opens new questions about the delicate compromise between altruistic and individualistic behaviours in social insects.''