Ant mill
A ants mill , also circular mill ( English ant mill or circular mill ), a phenomenon that particularly in Ants occurs.
Since the animals mostly follow the pheromone tracks of their predecessors, this can lead to running in circles if the tracks cross. As soon as several ants follow this trail, the pheromone trail intensifies, whereby the behavior is transferred to more and more ants and ultimately develops into a large visible vortex of ants. Usually the ants run away in the vortex until they die from exhaustion.
For the first time William Beebe reported in 1921 about an ant mill with a distance of 365 m, which corresponds to a running time of over 150 minutes.
This behavior can also be observed in the caterpillars of processionary moths.
Despite swarm intelligence , ant mills are an example of the limits of such collective behavior.
See also
literature
- Schneirla, TC 1944: A unique case of circular milling in ants, considered in relation to trail following and the general problem of orientation. American Museum Novitates (1253): 1–26, freely available here
- Delsuc F. 2003: Army Ants Trapped by Their Evolutionary History; PLoS Biology 1, Issue 2., 155-156; doi: 10.1371 / journal.pbio.0000037 , freely available here
- Couzin ID, Franks NR 2003: Self-organized lane formation and optimized traffic flow in army ants; Proc Roy Soc Lond B 270/1511, 139-146; doi: 10.1098 / rspb.2002.2210 ; freely available here