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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.
Ants typically use trail pheromones to coordinate roles like nest defense and foraging. [6] Ants can produce a trail of defensive secretions that trigger an alarm response within their nestmates. [7] In regards to foraging, an ant can communicate the quality of a food source to its colony; the more rewarding a food source is, the higher the ...
Depending on the function, there are different emission and reception scenarios. Ants, for example, emit alarm pheromones intermittently or continuously in the usually windless environment of the anthill. Trace pheromones are emitted by an ant as a moving source. Silkmoth sex pheromones are emitted in discrete scent threads in an air stream. [57]
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.
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.
Pharaoh ants (Monomorium pharaonis) mark trails that no longer lead to food with a repellent pheromone, which causes avoidance behaviour in ants. [22] Repellent trail markers may help ants to undertake more efficient collective exploration. [23] The army ant Eciton burchellii provides an example of using pheromones to mark and maintain foraging ...
Along with nutrients, trophallaxis can involve the transfer of molecules such as pheromones, organisms such as symbionts, and information to serve as a form of communication. [1] Trophallaxis is used by some birds, gray wolves, vampire bats, and is most highly developed in eusocial insects such as ants, wasps, bees, and termites.
Physiology of eusociality in fire ants: three queen pheromones help to create and maintain the eusocial state of the colony. Loss of a primer pheromone triggers the development of replacement queens (dashed lines). [83] [84] Among ants, the queen pheromone system of the fire ant Solenopsis invicta includes both releaser and primer pheromones. A ...