Social Behavior of Ants

Social Behavior of Ants

Ants communicate with each other through tapings with the antennae and

smell. They are considered, together with the bees, as one of the most

socialized animals. They have a perfect social organization, and each

type of individual specializes in a specific activity within the

colony. They are thought by many as having a collective intelligence,

and each ant is considered then as an individual cell of a bigger

organism.

The colony is made up of one or more queens and many female workers.

During two or three days a year there will also be drones, which seem

to have only a reproductive function.

The queens are bigger than the workers and the drones. The queens

produce particular pheromones, (which are special secreted substances

with special smells), that makes the whole colony work and keep

together. Each colony has its distinct smell, and all the members of

the same colony smell similar.

The other main function of a queen is to lay the fertilized eggs,

millions of eggs. The queen is the mother of all the ants in the

colony.

She can live up to 15 years and needs to mate only once. The mating

takes place in the air shortly after the queen breaks free from her

cocoon. After the mating takes place, she rips off her wings and looks

for an appropriate place to start the new colony. She does not need

the wings in her nest underground. She may pass many weeks, and even

months, without food. She has to take care of the first batch of eggs.

Once the first ants come out of their cocoons, they start gathering

food and doing all the chores around the nest. From there on, the

queen is taken care of, an...

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... response is a behavior that is modifiable

by its consequences. When behavior is modified by its consequences,

the probability of that behavior occurring again may either increase

(in the case of reinforcement) or decrease (in the case of p unishment)

Sign Stimulus The essential feature of a stimulus, which is necessary

to elicit a response. For example, a red belly (characteristic of

courting male sticklebacks) is the sign stimulus necessary to provoke

an attack from a rival male; even a very crude model fish is attacked

if it has a red undersurface.

Innate Releasing MechanismA mechanism which is built into the animal

and filters the stimuli coming in from the outside; this mechanism

then triggers the response.

Innate behavior:Instinctive behavior appears as a fully-formed act the

first time it is performed.