The ants find a food source leave traces of chemical compounds (pheromones) on the ground through a sting on her buttocks. The trail is made to help his friends find a food source.Many insects have a pheromone substance, but each has a function similar but not equal. For example, ants use pheromones to leave a trace, while butterflies use pheromones to attract the opposite sex.
In charge of foraging ants usually perform tasks in a way that is difficult to explain. He went to a food source by walking the winding, but returned to the nest with a shorter route straight.
How can an ant can only see a few centimeters can walk straight ahead?
To answer this question, a researcher named Richard Feynman put a lump of sugar at one end of the tub, then wait for an ant to come and find him. When the first ants coming back to the nest, Feynman follow a winding trail.
Then Feyman ants follow next. It turns out that Feynman found that the ants came later did not follow the trail; they are smarter, take the road until finally cut into straight-line tracks.
In inspired by Feynman, a computer scientist named Alfred Bruckstein prove mathematically that the ants that came next was to straighten the winding trail.
He gets the same conclusion, after a few ants, a long trace can be minimized to the shortest distance between two points in other words, form a straight line.
What does this tell was of course requires skill if done by humans. He should certainly use a compass, clock, and more sophisticated equipment to determine a distance. This person must also master mathematics.
In contrast to this, the guide ants is the sun, while the compass is the branches of trees and other natural landmarks. Ant given the form of these signs, so that they can use it to find the shortest route home, although the route is completely new to him.
Although it sounds easy to say but hard to explain. How could a tiny creature like an ant, who does not have the brains or the ability to think and consider, do calculations like this?
Communication techniques with the trail (follow the smell) are often used by ants. Many interesting example in this regard.
The ants find a food source leave traces of chemical compounds in the soil through a sting on her buttocks. The trail is made to help his friends find a food source.
A species of ant that lives in the deserts of America issued a special smell produced in the venom sac if he found a dead insect that is too large or heavy to carry.
Friends of the nest from a distance can smell that and start moving towards the source. When the number of ants gathered around the prey is enough, they bring the insect into the nest
When fire ants apart looking for food, they follow the scent trail for a while, then eventually split up and search for food respectively.
Attitude change if the fire ants have found food. When they find food, fire ants returning to the nest by walking more slowly and his body close to the ground.
Extruded sting and ends at certain intervals sting hits the ground like a pencil to draw a thin line. Thus fire ants leave a trail that leads to food.
Imagine if a man left in an unfamiliar forest. Even if he knows the direction to go, he would have trouble finding his way and will probably get lost.
In addition, he also must look at the circumstances carefully and consider which way is best.
However, ants act as if they know the correct way to find a way. At night, they can find and follow the path they took to find food in the morning, although conditions have changed.
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