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| Cooperation and resilience in army ant bivouacs |
| Isabella Muratore1,2, Mario Salah2, Vaishnavi Dornadula3, Megan Black3, Petras Swissler4,3, Michael Rubenstein3, Simon Garnier2. 1Chemistry Department, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD, United States; 2Department of Biological Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, United States; 3Engineering Department, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, United States; 4Engineering Department, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, United States |
Army ants are remarkable for their ability to assemble and disassemble large nests (“bivouacs”) composed of the living bodies of workers, in association with their nomadic life history. These temporary homes support the weight of thousands to millions of ants, highlighting both the strength of individual workers and the collective intelligence involved in efficiently organizing such structures. How ants share this responsibility may change over the course of bivouac growth or may differ based on membership. We assessed the average weight carried by ants located in different regions of bivouacs, over time and in bivouacs differing in size. We used modeling to compare trends in weight distribution among treatments. Interestingly, despite their greater total weight, larger bivouacs showed lower average burdens supported by each ant. Further, to study the resilience of bivouacs to external forces, we observed networks formed between individual ants and compared their composition before and after bouts of compression and expansion. Principles of cooperation and resilience identified in bivouacs serve as inspiration for the behavior of artificial groups such as robot swarms. |