Task-partitioning in insect societies: non-random interactions affect both colony efficiency and information flow

GRÜTER, CHRISTOPH; SCHÜRCH, ROGER; FARINA, WALTER M

JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL BIOLOGY

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2013 vol. 327: p. 23 - 33

0022-5193

Task-partitioningisanimportantorganisationalprincipleininsectcoloniesandisthoughttoincrease colony efficiency.Intask-partitioning,taskssuchasthecollectionofresourcesaredividedintosubtasks in whichthematerialispassedfromoneworkertoanother.Previousmodelshaveassumedthat worker–workerinteractionsarerandom,butexperimentalevidencesuggeststhatreceiverscanhave preferencestohandlefamiliarmaterials.Weusedanagent-basedsimulationmodeltoexplorehow non-randominteractionsduringtask-partitioningwithdirecttransferaffectcolonyworkefficiency. Because task-partitioningalsoallowsreceiversanddonorstoacquireforagingrelatedinformationwe analysedtheeffectofnon-randominteractionsoninformativeinteractionpatterns.Whenreceivers non-randomlyrejecteddonorsofferingcertainmaterials,donorsoverallexperiencedincreasedtime delays,hivestaydurationsandadecreasednumberoftransferpartners.However,thenumberof transferswasslightlyincreased,whichcanimprovetheacquisitionandqualityofinformationfor donors. Whenreceiverswerenon-randomlyattractedtodonorsofferingcertainmaterials,donors experiencedreducedtransferdelays,hivestaydurationsandanincreasednumberofsimultaneous receivers.Thenumberoftransfersisslightlydecreased.Theeffectsofthetwomechanisms‘‘non- randomrejection’’and‘‘non-randomattraction’’arebiggestifthenumberofforagersandreceiversis balanced.Insummary,ourresultsshowthatcolonyergonomicsareimprovedifreceiversdonotreject donors andifmechanismsexistthathelpreceiversdetectpotentialdonors,suchaslearningtheodour of thetransferredfood.Finally,oursimulationssuggestthatnon-randominteractionscanpotentially affecttheforagingpatternsofcoloniesinchangingenvironments.