3 replies to this topic

[AntaholicAnonymous]

I have a question that maybe some of you know or have anecdotes to from your own colonies.

I asked myself how much of the ants behavior is purely instinct driven and how much they can learn if anything.
I've started to take my only messor barbarus super major on my hand. At first she was running away and now after a couple times of handling she seems to not see it as a threat and purposely walks onto me to explore.

I've also had the impression that my messor got more efficient grabbing chia seeds over time. My manica developed into fruit fly killers after a couple weeks of feeding them often and started to turn isopods on their backs and wiped out all of them. I can't even establish an isopod population anymore.

It's possible that my observations are biased and just a result of population increase or other factors or they do have the ability to learn.
I'd like to hear your input on this.

[futurebird]

I've read the abstracts of a few studies on this and it seems individual ants can do some simple association learning, such as learning that a smell is connected with a reward or punishment. What I'm even more curious about are two things:

1. Can ants learn from their sisters?
2. Is there any sense in which learning is amplified by emergent phenomenon on the colony level. 

Ants also have surprisingly good memories for the simple connections they make through experience. A personal observation of this (that I would love to see tested formally so I know if I'm just projecting it on to them or if it's real) is how my Camponotus pennslyvanicus ants who are pets are happy to climb on my hand (I generally move them back to their nest this way if they escape) and they are scared of my paint brush (which I use to bop ants back in when they try to climb out) but when working with the same ants in the wild they are scared of my hand and more receptive to the paint brush. 

There are also excellent studies on how ants navigate. Most use pheromone trails, but a fair number also use landmarks and even the sun to remember the path back to the nest. Really puts even our most amazing computer chips to shame... the complexity one can find in minds smaller than the head of a pin! Call it "density of function" 

Imagine what we could do if our brains were so efficient and designed to make the most of every pathway and algorithm. 

Last the coolest think I learned about ant minds is that they probably dream! When ants are asleep they have two stages just like us. (Deep Sleep and REM sleep, or RAM sleep for ants as they move their antennae in a rapid manner similar to how vertebrates move our eyes in dreaming sleep.)

[FloridaAnts]

Ant workers if I remember correctly, have very little memory. Colonies as a whole act as one being, and can “remember” encounters with other colonies, common places where food is found, and even remember where other colonies are located. All of this information is based on the genus Pogonmyrmex.

[ANTdrew]

This study seems to support the idea that ants can learn: https://www.scienced...20720150534.htm