ANT SIMULATOR
INTERACTIVE | EDUCATION | RESEARCH
Ant Pheromone
Communication plays a central role in the organization of ant societies. In general, the typical ant colony operates with somewhere between 10 and 20 kinds of signals, and most of these are chemical in nature. Ants release scents, called pheromones, from glands on their body. Pheromones can convey different signals and one of the most important is for recruitment to a new food source.
When an ant colony starts out with no information about its immediate surroundings, the ants will explore the environment by randomly wandering around the nest. When an ant finds food, she will find her way back to the nest, leaving a trail of pheromones on the way.
Other ants, when running into a trail of pheromones, will more likely follow the trail than continue to wander around. Once the ant reaches the food, she will gather some food and go back to the nest, reinforcing the trail further by laying down more pheromones. Over time, the pheromones evaporate and this reduces the attractiveness of a trail.
Ants may take different paths between the nest and the food source but the more time it takes for an ant to move from the food to the nest, the more the trails are reduced in strength. Shorter paths, in comparison, get marched over more frequently and therefore, the strength of pheromones are higher on the shorter paths than on longer ones. Due to this positive feedback process, soon all the ants that are gathering food will choose the shorter path to the food.
​