Award details

Theoretical and emperical investigations of effective division of labour in social insects

Reference	E19832
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Nigel Franks
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Dr Edmund Collins, Professor Alasdair Houston, Professor John McNamara
Institution	University of Bristol
Department	Biological Sciences
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	155,681
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/01/2004
End date	31/12/2006
Duration	36 months

Abstract

The goal of this project is to investigate division of labour and information flow in social insect colonies. We seek to understand the role that the environment variability, group size and spatial structure play in the evolution of different task allocation mechanisms. We will combine analytical and computational modelling approaches to study the performance of various hypothesised mechanisms under changing conditions. This will be complemented by experimental studies using the ant species Leptothorax albipennis. We will also investigate the adaptive value of recruitment during foraging. Our results will shed light on how social insects perform complex collective behaviours even though they individually have limited cognitive abilities and access to only local information. Understanding these processes has wide implications for the study of other complex systems.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Engineering & Biological Systems (EBS)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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