Ant mill

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An ant mill Ant mill.gif
An ant mill

An ant mill is an observed phenomenon in which a group of army ants, separated from the main foraging party, lose the pheromone track and begin to follow one another, forming a continuously rotating circle. This circle is commonly known as a "death spiral" because the ants might eventually die of exhaustion. It has been reproduced in laboratories and in ant colony simulations. [1]

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The phenomenon is a side effect of the self-organizing structure of ant colonies. Each ant merely follows the ant in front of it, which functions until a slight deviation begins to occur, typically by an environmental trigger, and an ant mill forms. [2] An ant mill was first described in 1921 by William Beebe, who observed a mill 1200 ft (~370 m) in circumference. [3] It took each ant two and a half hours to make one revolution. [3] Similar phenomena have been noted in processionary caterpillars and fish. [4]

See also

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References

  1. Delsuc F (2003). "Army Ants Trapped by Their Evolutionary History". PLOS Biology. 1 (2): e37. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0000037 . PMC   261877 . PMID   14624241.
  2. Couzin ID & NR Franks (2003). "Self-organized lane formation and optimized traffic flow in army ants". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 270 (1511): 139–146. doi:10.1098/rspb.2002.2210. PMC   1691225 . PMID   12590751.
  3. 1 2 Beebe, William (1921). Edge of the Jungle. New York: Henry Holt and Co. pp. 291–294.
  4. Schneirla TC (1944). "A unique case of circular milling in ants, considered in relation to trail following and the general problem of orientation". American Museum Novitates (1253): 1–26. hdl:2246/3733.