Tight knit under stress: colony resilience to the loss of tandem leaders during relocation in an Indian ant

The movement of colonies from one nest to another is a frequent event in the lives of many social insects and is important for their survival and propagation. This goal-oriented task is accomplished by means of tandem running in some ant species, such as Diacamma indicum. Tandem leaders are central to this process as they know the location of the new nest and lead colony members to it. Relocations involving targeted removal of leaders were compared with unmanipulated and random member removal relocations. Behavioural observations were integrated with network analysis to examine the differences in the pattern of task organization at the level of individuals and that of the colony. All colonies completed relocation successfully and leaders who substituted the removed tandem leaders conducted the task at a similar rate having redistributed the task in a less skewed manner. In terms of network structure, this resilience was due to significantly higher density and outcloseness indicating inc...

社会性昆虫的巢群从一个巢址迁移至另一巢址，是其生命历程中的常见事件，对种群的生存与繁衍至关重要。这类以达成目标为导向的任务，在部分蚂蚁类群（如印度聚纹双刺猛蚁*Diacamma indicum*）中通过串联行进（tandem running）完成。串联行进的领头个体是该迁移过程的核心，它们掌握新巢址的位置，并带领巢群成员前往该处。本研究将移除指定领头个体的巢址迁移实验，与未进行人工干预的对照组以及随机移除成员的实验组迁移行为进行了对比。研究结合行为观察与网络分析手段，探究了个体层面与群体层面的任务组织模式差异。所有巢群均成功完成巢址迁移，替代被移除领头个体的替补领头者以相近的任务执行速率完成工作，且任务分配的偏倚程度更低。在网络结构层面，这一抗扰性源于显著更高的网络密度与外向紧密性（outcloseness），提示其具备潜在的……