HOUSE-hunting ant colonies can decide where best to nest even when most
workers only visit one prospective site. Eamonn Mallon at the University of Bath
colour-coded Leptothorax albipennis ants with paint and videoed them in an arena
containing two potential nests. They found the verdict on which one they chose
could be measured by the delay between a scout discovering a nest and leading
others to it. The better the nest, the shorter the delay. Once the number of
ants in the new nest reaches a threshold, “the rest are carried in”, says
Mallon, whose study will appear in a…
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