ArticlePloS one2014
The role of colony size on tunnel branching morphogenesis in ant nests.
Article in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Foraging behaviour affects nest architecture in a cross-species comparison of ant nests.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Pooled it
- The evolutionary ecology of nests: a cross-taxon approach.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
- The effect of nest topology on spatial organization and recruitment in the red ant Myrmica rubra.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2020Article
- Minimizing moving distance in deposition behavior of the subterranean termite.Ecology and evolution · 2020Article
- Interdisciplinary approaches for uncovering the impacts of architecture on collective behaviour.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2018Article
- Nest architecture shapes the collective behaviour of harvester ants.Biology letters · 2015Article
- Harvester ant nest architecture is more strongly affected by intrinsic than extrinsic factors.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Many ant species excavate nests that are made up of chambers and interconnecting tunnels. There is a general trend of an increase in nest complexity with increasing population size. This complexity reflects a higher ramification and anastomosis of tunnels that can be estimated by the meshedness coefficient of the tunnelling networks. It has long been observed that meshedness increases with colony size within and across species, but no explanation has been provided so far. Since colony size is a strong factor controlling collective digging, a high value of the meshedness could simply be a side effect of a larger number of workers. To test this hypothesis, we study the digging dynamics in different group size of ants Messor sancta. We build a model of collective digging that is calibrated from the experimental data. Model's predictions successfully reproduce the topological properties of tunnelling networks observed in experiments, including the increase of the meshedness with group size. We then use the model to investigate situations in which collective digging progresses outward from a centre corresponding to the way tunnelling behaviour occurs in field conditions. Our model predicts that, when all other parameters are kept constant, an increase of the number of workers leads to a higher value of the meshedness and a transition from tree-like structures to highly meshed networks. Therefore we conclude that colony size is a key factor determining tunnelling network complexity in ant colonies.
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