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Article Dans Une Revue Journal of Theoretical Biology Année : 2010

Testing the level of ant activity associated with quorum sensing; An empirical approach leading to the establishment and test of a null-model

P. Nouvellet
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J.P. Bacon
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D. Waxman
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Résumé

On the basis of experimental observations, this paper develops two well-defined mathematical models for the level of activity of Pharaoh's ants within their nesting area, with the aim of providing a more general understanding of animal activity. Under specific conditions, we observe that the activity of ants within their nesting area appears to show no dependence on their density. Making the assumption that all ants move independently of one another, this behaviour can be mathematically modelled as a random process based on the binomial distribution. Developing the model on this basis allows an exponential distribution to be exposed that underlies the time-intervals between ants leaving the nesting area. Such a distribution is present, irrespective of whether the ant population in the nesting area remains constant or steadily depletes, and suggests that ant-ant interactions do not play any significant role in determining ant activity under these experimental conditions.
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Dates et versions

hal-00620581 , version 1 (08-09-2011)

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P. Nouvellet, J.P. Bacon, D. Waxman. Testing the level of ant activity associated with quorum sensing; An empirical approach leading to the establishment and test of a null-model. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 2010, 266 (4), pp.573. ⟨10.1016/j.jtbi.2010.07.010⟩. ⟨hal-00620581⟩

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