Speed–accuracy trade-off paradigm in cooperative transport of ants

FORERO-CHAVEZ, NATALY; DEVEGILI, ANDRÉS M.; ALMA, ANDREA MARINA; FARJI-BRENER, ALEJANDRO G.

ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Año: 2025 vol. 227

0003-3472

Cooperative transport, the coordinated movement of an object by multiple individuals, requires consensus, which can be time consuming. Speedy decisions, especially in competitive situations, may come at the cost of reduced accuracy. To evaluate this speed–accuracy trade-off, we simulated interspecific competition scenarios during cooperative transport in ants by applying formic acid, a defensive alarm pheromone, to mimic attacks from 10, 100, 500 and 1000 ants. We used protein baits to stimulate cooperative transport in videorecorded trials performed in the field. We applied distilled water as a control for the no-competition condition. We measured the efficiency and accuracy of the cooperative transport by measuring the time to initiate transport, counting the number of ants involved, estimating the transport speed, group sinuosity and directional bias. High-competition scenarios resulted in a lower percentage of cooperative transport, shorter consensus time and more tortuous trajectories compared to low- or no-competition conditions. In these contexts, ants were more likely to abandon the resource entirely, indicating that competition can inhibit foraging. The transport speed and directional bias were not affected by experimentally generated competition. Our results suggest that the trade-off between speed and accuracy is enhanced in competitive contexts, illustrating a novel way in which competition can affect food acquisition in animal societies.