Social Insects: A Model System for Network Dynamics
Social insect colonies (ants, bees, wasps, and termites) show sophisticated collective problem-solving in the face of variable constraints. Individuals exchange information and materials such as food. The resulting network structure and dynamics can infor
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Abstract Social insect colonies (ants, bees, wasps, and termites) show sophisticated collective problem-solving in the face of variable constraints. Individuals exchange information and materials such as food. The resulting network structure and dynamics can inform us about the mechanisms by which the insects achieve particular collective behaviors and these can be transposed to man-made and social networks. We discuss how network analysis can answer important questions about social insects, such as how effective task allocation or information flow is realized. We put forward the idea that network analysis methods are under-utilized in social insect research, and that they can provide novel ways to view the complexity of collective behavior, particularly if network dynamics are taken into account. To illustrate this, we present an example of network tasks performed by ant workers, linked by instances of workers switching from one task to another. We show how temporal network analysis can propose and test new hypotheses on mechanisms of task allocation, and how adding temporal elements to static networks can drastically change results. We discuss the benefits of using social insects as models for complex systems in general. There are multiple opportunities emergent technologies and analysis methods in facilitating research on social insect network. The potential for interdisciplinary work could significantly advance diverse fields such as behavioral ecology, computer sciences, and engineering.
D. Charbonneau () Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Entomology & Insect Science, University of Arizona, Biological Sciences West, 1041 East Lowell, Room 235, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA e-mail: [email protected] B. Blonder A. Dornhaus Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, 1041 E Lowell St., Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] P. Holme and J. Saram¨aki (eds.), Temporal Networks, Understanding Complex Systems, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-36461-7 11, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
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1 Introduction 1.1 Social Insect Biology There are currently over 1.7 million described species on earth and 1 million of these are insects. Insects can be found in nearly all habitats and the earliest insects are thought to have evolved 400 million years ago [39, 96]. Within this exceptional group there exists an even more exceptional group: the social insects. Though they only represent 2% of insect species, social insects may constitute up to 80% of insect biomass and in total outweigh vertebrates by 7 to 1 [41, 89, 104]. They are known to be one of the most ecologically successful groups in nature, dominating most terrestrial habitats. Division of labor is often cited as a primary reason for their ecological success, particularly in ants [42, 72, 90, 103]. Social insects, including particularly termites, ants, bees and wasps, live in family groups of up to millions of members, called colonies. Colonies contain on
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