Ant trails fascinate children and scientists alike. With so many ants traveling in both directions, meeting and contacting one another, carrying their loads and giving the impression that they have a sense of urgency and duty, they pose the following question: how do they organize themselves? A new study may have some answers.
Pedro Leite Ribeiro and his colleagues at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, believe they have found another clue to the processes underlying the collective organization of leaf-cutter ants. In the new study, the researchers show that ants can work around a difficult obstacle that prevents them from returning home via the same route they used to reach a food supply. Unable to return to the nest on their two-way trail (which has most likely been in use for millions of years) they set up a new one-way system, taking two separate unidirectional roads between nest and food.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090331201520.htm
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