title: Modeling ant foraging: A chemotaxis approach with pheromones and trail formation.
abstract: We consider a continuous mathematical description of a population of ants and simulate numerically their foraging behavior using a system of partial differential equations of chemotaxis type. We show that this system accurately reproduces observed foraging behavior, especially spontaneous trail formation and efficient removal of food sources. We show through numerical experiments that trail formation is correlated with efficient food removal. Our results illustrate the emergence of trail formation from simple modeling principles.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Matemática, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Av. Athos da Silveira Ramos 149, Centro de Tecnologia-Bloco C, Cidade Universitária - Ilha do Fundão, Caixa Postal 68530, 21941-909 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. Electronic address: paulo@im.ufrj.br.
authors.forename: Paulo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Amorim
mesh_terms: D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants / Q000502:physiology*; D002633:Chemotaxis / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D010675:Pheromones / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D010675:Pheromones
keywords: Animal movement; Ant foraging; Chemotaxis; Mathematical biology; Mechanistic models; Numerical simulation; Pheromones; Reaction–diffusion equations