Digging diversity

摘要

Ant colonies can build large nests with a range of architectures. But what contributes to this diversity? Etienne Toffin and his colleagues at the Free University of Brussels photographed groups of Lasius niger ants every 10 minutes for 90 hours as the insects built a nest in a thin layer of sand sandwiched between two glass plates. The pictures revealed that nest building occurs in two stages. At first, the nest grows quickly in a circular shape. Later, it begins to branch, with buds appearing along the nest wall, some of which go on to become additional chambers.