Séminaire Liquides/Mat. molle

Mardi 15 Mai 2018 à 11h00.

Communication and exploration: experiments in leaf-cutter ants

''In social insects, communication of danger information between individuals and how do they behave outside their social context are relatively unexplored questions. Here we present two ongoing projects of our group.
First, we show that “panicked” ants, trapped in an area contaminated with a chemical, can communicate danger information through a physical barrier to nestmates located in a safe arena. Visual clues, vibrational signals and even pure mutual antennation are discarded as main mechanisms of danger information transmission through the obstacle. Somewhat unexpectedly, detailed quantification of the ant behavior reveals that examination of the legs of ants in the danger arena by nestmates in the safe one is key for danger information transmission. The fact that informed ants escape from the endangered sisters instead of trying to help them opens questions about the delicate compromise between altruistic and individualistic behavior in social insects.
Second, we focus on isolated workers of the leaf-cutting ant Atta insularis. Here, individuals from one colony were extracted from the line and placed at the centre of a circular 1-m diameter arena without any chemical, topographical or illumination stimulus. The motion of the isolated individuals was followed in detail before they reached the frontier of the arena. Those experiments are under way.''