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Should we choose to go to the best place, or the nearest place that is good enough? Insights from ant networks in our latest Open Access article in @RSocPublishing #ProcB https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0430 
A thread with models and real red wood ants 
A thread with models and real red wood ants
Some ants (so called polydomous) are very successful at solving transport problems. These ants make big networks of connected nests and share food between them. We wanted to find out: How do ants make these successful networks? Can we learn from what the ants have achieved?
First, we combined two modelling approaches used to understand ant foraging. One describes the behaviour of the ants making and following trails, and one describes the pattern of where a colony distributes its ants depending on positive feedback.
Both models show us that foraging ant colonies successfully choose nearer and better food sources.
Can these foraging rules help us understand how ants use their networks of connected nests? We compare what our foraging model predicts with real wood ant nest networks and we find a good match.
So, could these foraging rules even tell us how the nest networks are made? To test this, we make a third model. It uses the ideas that came out of our foraging models to create artificial nest networks. We compare the artificial ones to real nest networks.
We find they are similar in how good they are at moving food around (efficiency) and surviving disruption (robustness). This shows that ant colonies can use foraging rules not just for collecting food but also to make complex nest networks for food sharing.
The network properties they demonstrate (efficiency and robustness) are important for human transport networks too. Ants make successful transport networks using exploration and simple positive feedback processes. Read the full Open Access paper here: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0430
This study was conducted during my postdoc at @BiologyatYork @YCCSA with the best colleagues and supervisors Hannah Larson @Samellisq @Domburnsburns @Elva_Robinson @MatinaDonaldson @Scott_Powell_
