Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 1999
266, 371-378.
Coupled oscillators and activity waves in ant colonies
S. Boi 1, I. D. Couzin 2* , N. Del Buono 1 , N. R. Franks 2 and
N. F. Britton 1
1 School of Mathematical Sciences and 2 Department of Biology and Biochemistry,
Centre for Mathematical Biology, University of Bath,
Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, UK
*author to whom correspondence should be addressed: icouzin@princeton.edu
We investigated the phenomenon of activity cycles in
ants, taking into account the spatial structure of colonies. In our
study species, Leptothorax acervorum, there are two spatially
segregated groups in the nest. We developed a model that considers the
two groups as coupled oscillators which can produce synchronized activity.
By investigating the e¡ects of noise on the model system we predicted
how the return of foragers a¡ects activity cycles in ant colonies.
We tested these predictions empirically by comparing the activity of
colonies under two conditions: when foragers are and are not allowed
to return to the nest. The activity of the whole colony and of each
group within the colony was studied using image analysis. This allowed
us to reveal the spatial pattern of activity wave propagation in ant
colonies for the first time.
