2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Integrated Study from Experiment, Theory and Data Analysis on Emerging Mechanism of Collective Functions by Social Insects

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	16H04035
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Biological physics/Chemical physics/Soft matter physics
Research Institution	Hiroshima University
Principal Investigator	Nishimori Hiraku 広島大学, 統合生命科学研究科(理), 教授 (50237749)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	粟津暁紀広島大学, 統合生命科学研究科(理), 准教授 (00448234) 秋野順治京都工芸繊維大学, 応用生物学系, 教授 (40414875) 中田聡広島大学, 統合生命科学研究科(理), 教授 (50217741) 末松信彦明治大学, 総合数理学部, 専任准教授 (80542274) 泉俊輔広島大学, 統合生命科学研究科(理), 教授 (90203116)
Project Period (FY)	2016-04-01 – 2020-03-31
Keywords	自己組織化 / 社会性昆虫 / 自己駆動系
Outline of Final Research Achievements	The purpose of this study was to clarify the mechanism of the sophisticated organizational behavior in ant colonies by combining experimental and theoretical methods. As a first step, we succeeded in constructing a new automatic measurement system in which we attached fine RFID tags to all ants in the colony and continuously recorded individual foraging behavior in PC for several months. After that, using this system, we obtained large-scale foraging behavioral data and clarified the followings; i) A hierarchical structure in which a large part of workload was carried by a small number of hard workers within the colony. ii) Hierarchical structure lasts for about a month, after which the working order changes significantly. iii) Swap is seen as a collective behavior of many individuals.
Free Research Field	非線形非平衡系の動力学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	様々な昆虫の中でも脳が小さく，限定的な情報処理しかできないアリの個体たちが、コロニー全体の大域的状況(食料不足など)に応じて適切に行動し、群れ全体の維持と繁栄に必要な機能を生み出すための機構の追求は、人間社会におけるしなやかな組織形成や維持機構の理解にもつながる。本研究を通じて我々は、これまでのアリの行動研究の最大のネックとなってきた、大量の個体の長時間行動データ取得を可能にする測定システムの開発に成功し、組織的採餌行動の特徴を定量的に明らかにした。本研究の成果は今後、国内外の同様の研究を加速させるものと考えられる。