Eur. Phys. J. B 65, 379-385 (2008)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2008-00334-3

Self-organization, collective decision making and resource exploitation strategies in social insects

¹ Department of Zoology, University of Oxford S. Parks road, OX1 3PS Oxford, UK
² School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney New South Wales 2006, Australia

Corresponding author: ^a snicolis@math.uu.se

Received: 16 January 2008
Revised: 29 May 2008
Published online: 22 August 2008

Abstract

Amplifying communications are a ubiquitous characteristic of group-living animals. This work is concerned with their role in the processes of food recruitment and resource exploitation by social insects. The collective choices made by ants faced with different food sources are analyzed using both a mean field description and a stochastic approach. Emphasis is placed on the possibility of optimizing the recruitment and exploitation strategies through an appropriate balance between individual variability, cooperative interactions and environmental constraints.