Like light, ants do not use the most short and fastest way.
A photo from open sources
Recent research has shown that fire ants can pass over a specific surface of their choice so that reduce the total travel time, not reduce the distance. Scientists argue that this discovery will shed light on social self-organization of these insects. In optics, a ray of light passing from one point to another, “chooses” the path that requires the least time, even if this distance is not the shortest – it the rule is known as the Fermat principle. As part of the study, scientists gathered a colony of fire ants from the territory of Israel. In each the colony there were several thousand working ants and several queens. Ants were placed in one corner of the cage, and cockroaches in as bait in another corner. To get to the cockroaches, ants had to cross a zone full of various obstacles objects: soft and coarse felt, as well as glass surfaces. Moreover, at different stages of the study, the obstacles were set in pairs next to each other – glass with rough felt, glass next to soft felt, and coarse felt paired with soft. The fastest ants crossed the glass surface, and moving on soft felt took them less time than on solid. On the way to the bait the ants did not follow any a particular path, and chose a more even material, so that spend less time on it. Thus research confirms that Fermat’s principle is valid for living creatures. Ants rely on pheromones to find the way. Researchers believe that initially a chemical footprint is chosen randomly, but subsequently turns into a full route. This process illustrates a model of self-organization and evolution, because of all possible paths, insects choose the most fast. Study Leader Jan Oettler of University of Regensburg (Germany) said that they managed to find pheromone-based insect movement algorithm and social interaction. However, at shorter distances the ants could not find a speedy path, perhaps due to the abundance pheromones nearby. Scientists have long known that to search for food Ants choose the shortest paths to save time and effort. For example, reaper ants avoid the path with plenty of vegetation, and red ants prefer horizontal movement over verticals.
Sergey Vasilenkov
Time Insects
