Modular nest structure influences activity cycle synchronisation in ant colonies: data and code repository.

This repository contains the data and analysis code associated with the manuscript: Richardson, T. O., Ruegg, M., Pritchard, Z., Keller, L., & Stroeymeyt, N.Modular nest structure influences activity cycle synchronisation in ant colonies Manuscript accepted in principle by Communications Biology. This repository supports a study of how modular nest architecture influences collective behavioural dynamics in colonies of the acorn ant Leptothorax acervorum. Colonies were monitored using barcode-based automated tracking, allowing the reconstruction of individual trajectories, spatial organisation, behavioural state dynamics, and physical interaction networks over multi-day recording sessions. The dataset derives from an experiment in which 13 colonies were successively housed in two nest architectures — a single-chamber nest and a double-chamber nest — for six days of continuous tracking, resulting in paired observations for each colony under both architectural conditions. The repository includes the full behavioural dataset generated by the experiment, together with the complete R analysis pipeline used in the study. The analyses quantify social and spatial organisation, collective activity rhythms, behavioural state transitions, activity transmission through contact networks, and the switching of activity carriers between nest compartments. Detailed descriptions of the dataset and code are provided in the accompanying README files in the data and code directories.