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Ant communication in most species involves pheromones, which is a method using chemical trails for other ants or insects to find and follow. [ 1 ] However, ants of some species can communicate without using pheromones or chemical trails in general.
Pheromone-based communication is one of the most effective ways of communication which is widely observed in nature. Pheromone is used by social insects such as bees, ants and termites; both for inter-agent and agent-swarm communications. Due to its feasibility, artificial pheromones have been adopted in multi-robot and swarm robotic systems.
Sex pheromones have a higher complexity than most alarm pheromones, but a lower molar mass than marker pheromones, which permanently indicate an area. [ 58 ] In the case of flying insects - such as butterflies - the pheromone as a molecule must not be too large, otherwise the vapor pressure and volatility are too low.
Chemical communication within a species can be usurped by other species in chemical mimicry. The mimic produces allomones or pheromones to influence the behaviour of another insect, the dupe, to the mimic's advantage. The process is important in ant mimicry where species that do not look like ants are accepted into the ant colony.
This book is primarily aimed at academics as a reference work, detailing the ants' anatomy, physiology, social organization including their caste system, altruistic behaviour, and chemical communication with pheromones, their ecology (vital for turning the soil and controlling insect pests), and natural history. [2] [3] [4] [5]
The returning worker ants have also been found to emit more pheromones than those leaving the nest, causing the difference in concentration of pheromone in the trails. [21] The pheromones will allow foraging to be much more efficient by allowing the army ants to avoid their own former paths and those of their conspecifics. [19]
Trail pheromones are semiochemicals secreted from the body of an individual to affect the behavior of another individual receiving it. Trail pheromones often serve as a multi purpose chemical secretion that leads members of its own species towards a food source, while representing a territorial mark in the form of an allomone to organisms outside of their species. [1]
Semiochemical communication can be divided into two broad classes: communication between individuals of the same species (intraspecific) or communication between different species (interspecific). [2] It is usually used in the field of chemical ecology to encompass pheromones, allomones, kairomones, attractants and repellents. [1] [3]