Data from: Maintaining tandem movement cohesion through antennal movements in termites

How do animals coordinate their motion during migration? Traditional
models of collective motion, for example, describing bird flocks or fish
schools, rely on visual interactions. However, many animals are blind,
requiring movement coordination through maintenance of physical contact.
The risks and costs of becoming accidentally separated may encourage the
evolution of compensatory strategies. Here we study tandem running in
blind termites. We quantitatively investigate how these animals use their
appendages to maintain stable pair movements. During tandem runs, male
followers use shorter palps and longer antennae to maintain physical
contact with female leaders. Our posture-tracking analysis revealed that
termites dynamically change their antennal movements. Males stabilize
their antennae to maintain contact with their partners while their palps
are in contact. When the male palps lost contact with a female, males
started swinging their antennae while increasing movement speed. Antennae
removal experiments revealed that antennal swinging contributes to pair
maintenance, and males compensate for single antenna loss by increasing
the swinging of the remaining one. By providing detailed information on
contact-based movement coordination, our results contribute to
understanding the diversity of animal collective behavior.