Modeling the movement of Oecophylla smargandina on short-length scales in an unfamiliar environment

L Charoonratana; T Thiwatwaranikul; P Paisanpan; S Suksombat; M F Smith

doi:10.1186/s40462-023-00426-w

Modeling the movement of Oecophylla smargandina on short-length scales in an unfamiliar environment

Mov Ecol. 2023 Oct 16;11(1):64. doi: 10.1186/s40462-023-00426-w.

Authors

L Charoonratana^{1

2}, T Thiwatwaranikul^{1

2}, P Paisanpan^{1

2}, S Suksombat^{2

3}, M F Smith^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ School of Physics, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, 30000, Thailand.
² NANOTEC-SUT Center of Excellence on Advanced Functional Nanomaterials, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, 30000, Thailand.
³ School of Sport Science, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, 30000, Thailand.
⁴ School of Physics, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, 30000, Thailand. mfsmith@g.sut.ac.th.
⁵ NANOTEC-SUT Center of Excellence on Advanced Functional Nanomaterials, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, 30000, Thailand. mfsmith@g.sut.ac.th.

Abstract

The movement of individual weaver ants, of Oecophylla smargandina, was previously tracked within an unfamiliar arena. We develop an empirical model, based on Brownian motion with a linear drag and constant driving force, to explain the observed distribution of ants over position and velocity. Parameters are fixed according to the isotropic, homogeneous distribution observed near the middle of the arena. Then, with no adjustable parameters, the model accounts for all features of the measured population distribution. The tendency of ants to remain near arena edges is largely explained as a statistical property of bounded stochastic motion though evidence for active wall-following behavior appears in individual ant trajectories. Members of this ant species are capable of impressive feats of collective action and long-range navigation. But we argue that they use a simplistic algorithm, captured semi-quantitatively by the model provided, to navigate within the confined region.

Keywords: Animal movement; Langevin Theory; Thigmotaxis; Weaver Ants.