Organisation spatio-temporelle des déplacements collectifs chez les fourmis

This study deals with the organisation of collective movements in ants in presence of environmental heterogeneities, particularly in situations involving crowding. We chose two species of ants, characterised by different degrees of polymorphism, as well as by their mode of food transport. Our aim is to identify the link between the behavioural rules observed at the scale of the individual and the spatio-temporal organisation observed at the scale of the group. ndependently of the species, we found that the regulation of traffic in crowding situations depends both on interattraction processes, via the communication through the chemical trail, and on dispersion phenomena. These latter vary as a function of the size of the individuals and of the task they achieve, but give rise to comparable organisations in the two species studied. The originality of this work lies in the fact that it shows that the mechanisms of dispersion allowing the regulation of the traffic and the prevention of crowding are a by-product of the interattraction processes.TOULOUSE3-BU Sciences (315552104) / SudocSudocFranceF