Abstract:
With their unique colony structure, competition between ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) can be particularly intense, with colonies potentially willing to sacrifice large number of individuals to obtain resources or territory under the right circumstances. In this review, we cover circumstances in which ant competition escalates into combat, battle strategies and tactics, and analysis methods for these battles. The trends for when colonies choose to fight can vary greatly dependent on the species and situation, which we review in detail. Because of their large group sizes, ant conflicts can follow different patterns than many other species, with a variety of specialist adaptations and battle strategies, such as specialized worker classes and the need to rapidly recruit large number of compatriots. These same large group sizes also can make ant fighting amenable to mathematical analysis, particularly in the context of Lanchester\'s laws that consider how total numbers influence the outcome of a confrontation. Yet, dynamic behavior can often disrupt idealized mathematical predictions in real-world scenarios, even though these can still shed light on the explanations for such behavior. We also systematically cover the literature on battles between groups of ants, presenting several other interesting studies on species with unique colony organization, such as army ants and leafcutter ants.
摘要:
以其独特的群体结构,蚂蚁之间的竞争(膜翅目:Formicidae)可能特别激烈,在适当的情况下,殖民地可能愿意牺牲大量个人来获得资源或领土。在这次审查中,我们涵盖了蚂蚁竞争升级为战斗的情况,战斗战略和战术,以及这些战斗的分析方法。殖民地选择战斗的趋势可能因物种和情况而异,我们会详细回顾一下。因为他们的团体规模很大,蚂蚁冲突可以遵循与许多其他物种不同的模式,通过各种专业的改编和战斗策略,例如专门的工人阶层和需要迅速招募大量同胞。这些相同的大群体规模也可以使蚂蚁战斗适合数学分析,特别是在兰切斯特的法律的背景下,考虑总数如何影响对抗的结果。然而,动态行为通常会破坏现实场景中理想化的数学预测,即使这些仍然可以阐明这种行为的解释。我们还系统地报道了关于蚂蚁群体之间战斗的文献,提出了其他一些关于具有独特殖民地组织的物种的有趣研究,如军蚁和削叶蚁。