IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/nmcmxx/v18y2011i1p25-37.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Finding optimal collective strategies using individual-based simulations: colony organization in social insects

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Dornhaus

Abstract

Social insects like ants and bees live in cooperative colonies containing up to millions of individuals. These colonies are sometimes termed ‘superorganisms’ and have evolved tightly integrated and sophisticated collective behaviours. Different species, however, often differ in the type and mechanisms of communication and collective organization employed. I show here how individual-based models can be used to identify the non-intuitive benefits of different mechanisms of communication and division of labour and how these benefits may depend on the external environment as well as traits of the society itself. This allows us to understand under what ecological conditions particular types of collective organization may have evolved, and thus can also help to explain variation among species.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Dornhaus, 2011. "Finding optimal collective strategies using individual-based simulations: colony organization in social insects," Mathematical and Computer Modelling of Dynamical Systems, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 25-37, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:nmcmxx:v:18:y:2011:i:1:p:25-37
    DOI: 10.1080/13873954.2011.601422
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13873954.2011.601422
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13873954.2011.601422?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gavin Sherman & P. Kirk Visscher, 2002. "Honeybee colonies achieve fitness through dancing," Nature, Nature, vol. 419(6910), pages 920-922, October.
    2. Anja Weidenmüller, 2004. "The control of nest climate in bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) colonies: interindividual variability and self reinforcement in fanning response," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 15(1), pages 120-128, January.
    3. Anna Dornhaus & Franziska Klügl & Christoph Oechslein & Frank Puppe & Lars Chittka, 2006. "Benefits of recruitment in honey bees: effects of ecology and colony size in an individual-based model," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 17(3), pages 336-344, May.
    4. Eric Bonabeau & Guy Theraulaz & Jean-Louis Deneubourg, 1998. "Fixed Response Thresholds and the Regulation of Division of Labor in Insect Societies," Working Papers 98-01-009, Santa Fe Institute.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maria-del-Mar Bibiloni-Femenias & José Guerrero & Juan-José Miñana & Oscar Valero, 2021. "Indistinguishability Operators via Yager t -norms and Their Applications to Swarm Multi-Agent Task Allocation," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-21, January.
    2. Dussutour, Audrey & Nicolis, Stamatios C., 2013. "Flexibility in collective decision-making by ant colonies: Tracking food across space and time," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 32-38.
    3. Sun, Zhe & Wang, Ning & Bi, Yunrui & Srinivasan, Dipti, 2015. "Parameter identification of PEMFC model based on hybrid adaptive differential evolution algorithm," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 90(P2), pages 1334-1341.
    4. Thomas Owen Richardson & Kim Christensen & Nigel Rigby Franks & Henrik Jeldtoft Jensen & Ana Blagovestova Sendova-Franks, 2011. "Ants in a Labyrinth: A Statistical Mechanics Approach to the Division of Labour," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(4), pages 1-12, April.
    5. Becher, M.A. & Grimm, V. & Knapp, J. & Horn, J. & Twiston-Davies, G. & Osborne, J.L., 2016. "BEESCOUT: A model of bee scouting behaviour and a software tool for characterizing nectar/pollen landscapes for BEEHAVE," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 340(C), pages 126-133.
    6. Boysen, Nils & Scholl, Armin & Wopperer, Nico, 2012. "Resequencing of mixed-model assembly lines: Survey and research agenda," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 216(3), pages 594-604.
    7. Marcel García & Jose Aguilar & María D. R-Moreno, 2024. "An Autonomous Distributed Coordination Strategy for Sustainable Consumption in a Microgrid Based on a Bio-Inspired Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-28, February.
    8. Daniel Charbonneau & Anna Dornhaus, 2015. "When doing nothing is something. How task allocation strategies compromise between flexibility, efficiency, and inactive agents," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 217-242, October.
    9. Jan J. Kreider & Thijs Janzen & Abel Bernadou & Daniel Elsner & Boris H. Kramer & Franz J. Weissing, 2022. "Resource sharing is sufficient for the emergence of division of labour," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    10. Istvan Karsai & Andrew Runciman, 2011. "The ‘common stomach’ as information source for the regulation of construction behaviour of the swarm," Mathematical and Computer Modelling of Dynamical Systems, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 13-24, May.
    11. Byron N. Van Nest & Darrell Moore, 2012. "Energetically optimal foraging strategy is emergent property of time-keeping behavior in honey bees," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 23(3), pages 649-658.
    12. Dyer, A.G. & Dorin, A. & Reinhardt, V. & Garcia, J.E. & Rosa, M.G.P., 2014. "Bee reverse-learning behavior and intra-colony differences: Simulations based on behavioral experiments reveal benefits of diversity," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 277(C), pages 119-131.
    13. Boris Granovskiy & Tanya Latty & Michael Duncan & David J. T. Sumpter & Madeleine Beekman, 2012. "How dancing honey bees keep track of changes: the role of inspector bees," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 23(3), pages 588-596.
    14. Tsvetomira Radeva & Anna Dornhaus & Nancy Lynch & Radhika Nagpal & Hsin-Hao Su, 2017. "Costs of task allocation with local feedback: Effects of colony size and extra workers in social insects and other multi-agent systems," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(12), pages 1-29, December.
    15. Pierre-André Eyer & Julien Freyer & Serge Aron, 2013. "Genetic polyethism in the polyandrous desert ant Cataglyphis cursor," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 24(1), pages 144-151.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:nmcmxx:v:18:y:2011:i:1:p:25-37. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/NMCM20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.