Rock Ants Take a ‘Meandering’ Path in Predictable Pattern When Exploring Around Their Nest

According to a recent study, at least one species of rock ant doesn't move at all randomly. Rather, their search combines deliberate meandering with sporadic random walks.

Ants walking in meandering pattern

(Photo : Prabir Kashyap/ via Unsplash)

Stefan Popp from Tucson's University of Arizona. They discovered that rock ants, Temnothorax rugatulus, explore the area around their nests in a striking, predictable pattern, as per Sciencedaily.

He describes that he and his colleagues call the behavior meandering because it resembles the pattern created by a meandering river. They also discover that ants' meandering could make their search more effective than just a pure random search would've been.

This is due to the fact that ants search the same area less frequently because those who tend to meander and cross their own paths less frequently than random walk tracks.

Popp's team set out to discover how ant colonies respond to nestmates and surface structure. They moved a whole colony of ants into the lab because it is challenging to track ants in their natural habitat and since they could track exactly all ants automatically and under constant situations there.

According to their research, 78% of ants exhibited a significant negative autocorrelation at a distance of 10 mm, or roughly 3 body lengths.

This means that after a roughly constant distance, turns in one direction were usually followed by turns in opposite direction.

They claim that since the ants can keep near to the nest without continually searching the same areas, it probably makes their search more effective.

According to the authors, the new study marks the first to discover proof of effective search through predictable meandering in a free-roaming animal.

It also introduces yet another intricate behavior for ants, indicating that there is still much to discover.

Also Read: Here's How Ants Walk Backward to Find Home

Ants are very intelligent

According to studies, among all insect species, ants are the most intelligent. Many people wonder if ants have brains.

They do indeed have a brain, albeit a very small one with only 250,000 neurons. Although it is much smaller than the human brain, it is much larger than the brains of other insect species. These ants are intelligent and capable of adhering to their colony's routine, as per Empire Pest Control.

This is the largest species of stinging insect known to science, and thanks to its enormous brain, it is able to communicate, send signals, engage in combat, hunt for food and shelter, and perform sophisticated long-distance navigation.

Pheromones keep ants walking in a line

Ants are extremely social insects that live in vast colonies of coexisting, cooperative individuals. The key to their success is effective communication, as per Science Focus.

To defend their territories and communicate complex information, such as the locations of food sources and nesting locations as well as the presence of predators, they heavily rely on chemical scents called pheromones.

Each type of ant uses its own chemical language, consisting of up to 20 distinct pheromones that may be secreted to create distinct scent trails.

The ants are guided in a line to or from the desired location by the tips of their antennae, which translate the chemical words.