Dose an Ant Move in the Same Direction with Ant Crowds after Joining a Pheromone Trail?

Abstract

The social insects, such as ants, use pheromones as social information. Presence of other ants can be also useful information for ants' decision-making at the individual-level. In that sense, contacting with other ants may be a private information. In this study, we attempted to address the problem of individual decision-making by focusing on the complementary use of pheromones and the presence of other ants. Individual ants were allowed to enter a bridge at right angles where an ant trail was established. As a result, we found that target ants tended to move against the ant crowd. These results suggest that ants might determine the direction of movement on the ant trails based on contacting with other ants.