Data from: Nest architecture shapes the collective behavior of harvester ants

Structures influence how individuals interact and, therefore, shape the collective behaviours that emerge from these interactions. Here I show that the structure of a nest influences the collective behaviour of harvester ant colonies. Using network analysis, I quantify nest architecture and find that as chamber connectivity and redundancy of connections among chambers increase, so does a colony's speed of recruitment to food. Interestingly, the volume of the chambers did not influence speed of recruitment, suggesting that the spatial organization of a nest has a greater impact on collective behaviour than the number of workers it can hold. Thus, by changing spatial constraints on social interactions organisms can modify their behaviour and impact their fitness.结构会影响个体间的互动方式，进而塑造由这些互动所催生的集体行为。本研究表明，蚁巢的结构会影响收获蚁（harvester ant）群落的集体行为。本研究借助网络分析手段量化蚁巢架构，发现蚁室的连通性与蚁室间连接的冗余度越高，蚁群的食物招募速度便越快。值得注意的是，蚁室的容积并不会对食物招募速度产生影响，这表明相较于蚁巢所能容纳的工蚁数量，蚁巢的空间组织对集体行为的影响更为显著。由此可见，通过改变社会互动所受的空间约束，生物体能够调整自身行为并影响其进化适合度。