I read this article about ants. There are two ant colonies. Both in different American states. One colony scavangers food etc like you would expect ants to do. The other one raids neigbouring ant colonies, stealing eggs. They then use them as slaves. As the ants are genetically identical it must be something to do with the Queens. Ive see people make simple ant simulations, but has anyone ever done some real research and made a proper ant simulation including queen ants? Any ideas on this?

quote: Original post by johnnyBravo
I read this article about ants. There are two ant colonies. Both in different American states.

One colony scavangers food etc like you would expect ants to do.

The other one raids neigbouring ant colonies, stealing eggs. They then use them as slaves.

As the ants are genetically identical it must be something to do with the Queens.


Ive see people make simple ant simulations, but has anyone ever done some real research and made a proper ant simulation including queen ants?

Any ideas on this?

I know that one popular theory about birds is that at least some of their behavior is learned. This has important implications for animals which have been "saved" from extinction and which one hopes to return to the wild- they may not be adequately prepared for life on the outside. Anyway, the behavior you describe is presumably a cultural artifact, given genetic identity. Curiously, Lamarck may have been right after all.

Ants have such a small brain, they are basically automatic robots. There is not much they can learn... All their behavior is genetically encoded from millions of years of evolution.

And I have read two separate articles that state the human brain can only physically store about 3 months worth of information from all the senses. This was based on how many nurons/chemiacls scientists think it take to store a memory. So given that you generally only use about 10% of your brain, that means you wouldn’t remember anything for more than 3 years. So I highly doubt that brain mass alone dedicates how well/much you can learn.

Our kitchen ants have learned to scatter in very effective patterns after I squash one of them with extreme prejudice...

Yeah, ants are dumb, they can only do vector integration to find their way home via the sun from miles away, build enormous nests via laying pheremones (a method known as stimergy) and (if you were about to say "yes, but that''s all genetically inherited intelligence") perform landmark navigation. That is, they can find their way home through recognising their local environment.

Dumb-ass sons of beaches

Scientists don''t know that much about ants. The fact is that you can grab an entire population from Northern America, and take it to Africa, and the entire behaviour can change, so...

Scientists still don''t understand how "alliances" between nests are formed, and why they are broken, etc...

Much is know about their physical behaviour, that they communicate with feromones, how they guide themselfs using the sun, their internal clocks, etc...

btw, it has been proved that Lamarck was right, and then some.
some scientists even go as far as saying that evolution is 90% Lamarck and 10% Darwin. And i tend to agree...

Anyway, ants have what is called as "distributed intelligence".
This means that their complex behaviour is the result of their micro interactions between themselfs and the surrounding environment. It also means that although individually, they aren''t very brigth, as a hole, they can exibit some quite complex behaviour.

Also, in many species, the Queen is nothing more that an egg-factory. It has to be well protected and nourished, but it has in no way real power, or decision capabilities. Its more of a slave than a queen in any way.

The fact is that for you to take an informed decision, you have to know what is going out there in the world, and that information doesn''t travel back to the queen. It would get lost far before it got to the royal chamber, in the hundreds of interactions between ants, "passing the word"...

The Queen can still sometimes issue orders like, i feel im dying, im going to produce some royal eggs, feed them well, or, we should move our nest, etc... but as i said before, things change from species to species, and from nest to nest...

There are many ant-like simulations out there, just google for it.

Good luck with ants, they''re my favourite animal, they''re a box full of surprises

[Hugo Ferreira][Positronic Dreams]
All your code are belong to us!

quote: Original post by pentium3id Also, in many species, the Queen is nothing more that an egg-factory. It has to be well protected and nourished, but it has in no way real power, or decision capabilities. Its more of a slave than a queen in any way.

lol that should of been obvious, i wasnt really thinking

Just the name queen so i assumed.