Efficiency and robustness of ant colony transportation networks

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

Volumn 68, Issue 3, 2014, Pages 509-517

  Cook, Zoe ^a   Franks, Daniel W ^a   Robinson, Elva J H ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF YORK   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Ants; Minimum spanning tree; Polydomy; Social insects; Transportation networks

Indexed keywords

EID: 84893948274     PISSN: 03405443     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s00265-013-1665-8     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. Andersen AN, Patel AD (1994) Meat ants as dominant members of Australian ant communities: an experimental test of their influence on the foraging success and forager abundance of other species. Oecologia 98: 15-24. doi: 10. 1007/bf00326085.
2. Aron S, Deneubourg JL, Goss S, Pasteels JM (1990) Functional self-organisation illustrated by internest traffic in ants: the case of the argentine ant. In: Alt W, Hoffman G (eds) Biological motion. Springer, Berlin, pp 533-547.
3. Baddeley A, Turner R (2005) Spatstat: an R package for analyzing spatial point patterns. J Stat Softw 12: 1-42.
4. Bebber DP, Hynes J, Darrah PR, Boddy L, Fricker MD (2007) Biological solutions to transport network design. Proc R Soc B Biol Sci 274: 2307.
5. Beekman M, Sumpter DJT, Ratnieks FLW (2001) Phase transition between disordered and ordered foraging in Pharaoh's ants. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 98: 9703-9706. doi: 10. 1073/pnas. 161285298.
6. Boccaletti S, Latora V, Moreno Y, Chavez M, Hwang DU (2006) Complex networks: structure and dynamics. Phys Rep 424: 175-308.
7. Bonnet E, Peer YV (2002) zt: a software tool for simple and partial Mantel tests. J Stat Softw 7: 1-12.
8. Boudjema G, Lemperiere G, Deschamps-Cottin M, George Molland D (2006) Analysis and nonlinear modeling of the mound-building ant Formica lugubris spatial multi-scale dynamic in a larch-tree stand of the southern French Alps. Ecol Model 190: 147-158.
9. Buczkowski G, Bennett G (2008) Seasonal polydomy in a polygynous supercolony of the odorous house ant, Tapinoma sessile. Ecol Entomol 33: 780-788. doi: 10. 1111/j. 1365-2311. 2008. 01034. x.
10. Buhl J, Gautrais J, Solé RV, Kuntz P, Valverde S, Deneubourg JL, Theraulaz G (2004) Efficiency and robustness in ant networks of galleries. Eur Phys J B Condens Matter Complex Syst 42: 123-129.
11. Buhl J, Gautrais J, Reeves N, Solé RV, Valverde S, Kuntz P, Theraulaz G (2006) Topological patterns in street networks of self-organized urban settlements. Eur Phys J B Condens Matter Complex Syst 49: 513-522. doi: 10. 1140/epjb/e2006-00085-1.
12. Buhl J, Hicks K, Miller E, Persey S, Alinvi O, Sumpter D (2009) Shape and efficiency of wood ant foraging networks. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 63: 451-460. doi: 10. 1007/s00265-008-0680-7.
13. Cerda X, Retana J, Haro A (1994) Social carrying between nests in polycalic colonies of the monogynoun ant Cataglyphis iberica (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Sociobiology 23(3): 215-231.
14. Cerdá X, Dahbi A, Retana J (2002) Spatial patterns, temporal variability, and the role of multi-nest colonies in a monogynous Spanish desert ant. Ecol Entomol 27: 7-15. doi: 10. 1046/j. 0307-6946. 2001. 00386. x.
15. Cherix D (1980) Note preliminaire sur la structure, la phenologie et le regime alimentaire d'une super-colonie de Formica lugubris Zett. Insect Soc 27: 226-236.
16. Cook Z, Franks DW, Robinson EJH (2013) Exploration versus exploitation in polydomous ant colonies. J Theor Biol 323: 49-56. doi: 10. 1016/j. jtbi. 2013. 01. 022.
17. Csardi G, Nepusz T (2006) The igraph software package for complex network research. InterJournal Complex Systems: 1695.
18. Dahbi A, Lenoir A (1998) Nest separation and the dynamics of the Gestalt odor in the polydomous ant Cataglyphis iberica (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 42: 349-355.
19. Debout G, Schatz B, Elias M, McKey D (2007) Polydomy in ants: what we know, what we think we know, and what remains to be done. Biol J Linn Soc 90: 319-348.
20. Dillier FX, Wehner R (2004) Spatio-temporal patterns of colony distribution in monodomous and polydomous species of North African desert ants, genus Cataglyphis. Insect Soc 51: 186-196.
21. Elias M, Rosengren R, Sundstrom L (2005) Seasonal polydomy and unicoloniality in a polygynous population of the red wood ant Formica truncorum. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 57: 339-349. doi: 10. 1007/s00265-004-0864-8.
22. Federle W, Maschwitz U, Fiala B (1998) The two-partner ant-plant system of Camponotus (Colobopsis) sp. 1 and Macaranga puncticulata (Euphorbiaceae): natural history of the exceptional ant partner. Insect Soc 45: 1-16. doi: 10. 1007/s000400050064.
23. Gastner MT, Newman MEJ (2006a) Shape and efficiency in spatial distribution networks. J Stat Mech Theory Exp 2006, P01015.
24. Gastner MT, Newman MEJ (2006b) The spatial structure of networks. Eur Phys J B Condens Matter Complex Syst 49: 247-252. doi: 10. 1140/epjb/e2006-00046-8.
25. Guimera R, Mossa S, Turtschi A, Amaral LAN (2005) The worldwide air transportation network: anomalous centrality, community structure, and cities' global roles. Proc Natl Acad Sci 102: 7794-7799.
26. Heller NE, Gordon DM (2006) Seasonal spatial dynamics and causes of nest movement in colonies of the invasive Argentine ant (Linepithema humile). Ecol Entomol 31: 499-510. doi: 10. 1111/j. 1365-2311. 2006. 00806. x.
27. Heller NE, Ingram KK, Gordon DM (2008) Nest connectivity and colony structure in unicolonial Argentine ants. Insect Soc 55: 397-403. doi: 10. 1007/s00040-008-1019-0.
28. Herbers JM (1986) Nest site limitation and facultative polygyny in the ant Leptothorax longispinosus. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 19: 115-122. doi: 10. 1007/bf00299946.
29. Herbers JM (1989) Community structure in north temperate ants: temporal and spatial variation. Oecologia 81: 201-211. doi: 10. 1007/bf00379807.
30. Holt J (1990) Observations on the relationships between meat ants and termites in tropical Australia. J Trop Ecol 6: 379-382.
31. Holway DA, Case TJ (2000) Mechanisms of dispersed central-place foraging in polydomous colonies of the Argentine ant. Anim Behav 59: 433-441.
32. Katifori E, Szöllo{double acute}si GJ, Magnasco MO (2010) Damage and fluctuations induce loops in optimal transport networks. Phys Rev Lett 104: 048704.
33. Latora V, Marchiori M (2001) Efficient behavior of small-world networks. Phys Rev Lett 87: 198701.
34. Latora V, Marchiori M (2002) Is the Boston subway a small-world network? Phys A Stat Mech Appl 314: 109-113. doi: 10. 1016/s0378-4371(02)01089-0.
35. Latty T, Ramsch K, Ito K, Nakagaki T, Sumpter DJT, Middendorf M, Beekman M (2011) Structure and formation of ant transportation networks. J R Soc Interface 8: 1298-1306.
36. McIver JD (1991) Dispersed central place foraging in Australian meat ants. Insect Soc 38: 129-137. doi: 10. 1007/bf01240963.
37. Nakagaki T, Yamada H, Hara M (2004) Smart network solutions in an amoeboid organism. Biophys Chem 107: 1-5. doi: 10. 1016/s0301-4622(03)00189-3.
38. Perna A, Valverde S, Gautrais J, Jost C, Solé R, Kuntz P, Theraulaz G (2008) Topological efficiency in three-dimensional gallery networks of termite nests. Phys A Stat Mech Appl 387: 6235-6244.
39. Pfeiffer M, Linsenmair KE (1998) Polydomy and the organization of foraging in a colony of the Malaysian giant ant Camponotus gigas (Hym./Form.). Oecologia 117: 579-590.
40. Pfeiffer M, Linsenmair K (2000) Contributions to the life history of the Malaysian giant ant Camponotus gigas (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Insect Soc 47: 123-132.
41. R Development Core Team (2011) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna.
42. Rasband WS (1997-2012) ImageJ. U. S. National Institutes of Health: Bethesda, MD, USA.
43. Ripley BD (1976) The second-order analysis of stationary point processes. J App Prob 13: 255-266.
44. Ripley BD, Rasson JP (1977) Finding the edge of a Poisson forest. J Appl Probab 14: 483-491.
45. Robinson EJH, Richardson T, Sendova-Franks A, Feinerman O, Franks N (2009) Radio tagging reveals the roles of corpulence, experience and social information in ant decision making. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 63: 627-636. doi: 10. 1007/s00265-008-0696-z.
46. Santini G, Ramsay PM, Tucci L, Ottonetti L, Frizzi F (2011) Spatial patterns of the ant Crematogaster scutellaris in a model ecosystem. Ecol Entomol 36: 625-634. doi: 10. 1111/j. 1365-2311. 2011. 01306. x.
47. Sen P, Dasgupta S, Chatterjee A, Sreeram PA, Mukherjee G, Manna SS (2003) Small-world properties of the Indian railway network. Phys Rev E 67: 036106.
48. Snyder LE, Herbers JM (1991) Polydomy and sexual allocation ratios in the ant Myrmica punctiventris. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 28: 409-415.
49. Southworth D, He XH, Swenson W, Bledsoe C, Horwath W (2005) Application of network theory to potential mycorrhizal networks. Mycorrhiza 15: 589-595.
50. Tero A, Takagi S, Saigusa T, Ito K, Bebber DP, Fricker MD, Yumiki K, Kobayashi R, Nakagaki T (2010) Rules for biologically inspired adaptive network design. Sci Signal 327: 439.
51. Traniello JFA, Levings SC (1986) Intra- and intercolony patterns of nest dispersion in the ant Lasius neoniger: correlations with territoriality and foraging ecology. Oecologia 69: 413-419.
52. van Wilgenburg E, Elgar M (2007) Colony structure and spatial distribution of food resources in the polydomous meat ant Iridomyrmex purpureus. Insect Soc 54: 5-10. doi: 10. 1007/s00040-007-0903-3.
53. Wiernasz DC, Cole BJ (1995) Spatial distribution of Pogonomyrmex occidentalis: recruitment, mortality and overdispersion. J Anim Ecol 64: 519-527.