Social networking in the world of antsAnt Encounters: Interaction Networks and Colony Behavior by Deborah M. Gordon. Princeton University Press, 2010

摘要

Ants are a highly successful group, found in almost every terrestrial environment and frequently ecologically dominant. They are diverse, with over 11 000 species known and at least as many still to be described. Ants are never solitary, but instead live in colonies comprising up to several million individuals. The combination of these large societies with such wide-ranging success immediately raises the question posed by author Deborah Gordon on the first page of this book: ‘How can ants get anything done, when no-one is in charge?’ Despite the use of the term ‘queen’ for a reproductive female ant, this is no hierarchical monarchy, neither are there foremen (or forewomen) to direct other workers. Nevertheless, ant colonies effectively allocateworkers to different tasks, respond to changes in the environment, and perform complex collective feats, such as excavation, construction and cooperative foraging. One cannot find the explanation for these impressive achievements by studying individual ants in isolation, no matter how thoroughly, because the interactions between the individuals have a crucial role. Through processes involving positive feedback, inhibition and redundancy, these patterns of interactions make the whole vastly greater thanthe simple sum of its parts, in a manner comparable to other complex biological systems, such as the developing embryo and the brain.