Social insect colonies need to explore and exploit multiple food sources simultaneously and
efficiently. At the individual level, this colony-level behaviour has been thought to be taken …

Comprising a substantial part of living biomass on earth, ants are integral to the functioning
of terrestrial ecosystems. More than 12,000 species have been described to date, and it is …

Many animals nest or roost colonially. At the start of a potential foraging period, they may set
out independently or await information from returning foragers. When should such …

Collective navigation and swarming have been studied in animal groups, such as fish
schools, bird flocks, bacteria, and slime molds. Computer modeling has shown that …

Since their origin about 120 million years ago (Mya), ants have evolved to become the most
species-rich and ecologically diverse group of social insects (Grimaldi and Engel 2005; …

The aphid tending ant species, Lasius niger collectively explore new areas. Scouts are
mobilised within the first five minutes of exploration with activity thereafter decreasing and …

According to the weight and size of their prey, Ectatomma ruidum workers can employ
different recruitment systems (solitary hunting, cooperative hunting and group hunting with …

Natural selection favors signals, receptors, and signaling behavior that maximize the
received signal relative to background noise and that minimize signal degradation. The …

In socially foraging species resource information can be shared between individuals,
increasing foraging success. In ant colonies, nestmate recruitment allows high exploitation …

Why should a book on swarm intelligence start with a chapter on biology? Because swarm
intelligence is biology. For millions of years many biological systems have solved complex …