Ant Mill

When an ant is placed in a foreign environment without a trail to lead it home, it will wander aimlessly (probably the best method for stumbling onto the lost trail). When it encounters another ant from the same colony, it follows (maybe that ant knows the way back!)

When the entire colony is massively displaced and loses its trail, it swarms around itself like a spiral galaxy, since all the ants revert to the best-guess default behavior of "following another ant", and none of them have any idea where to go. Unless disrupted, the ants will continue to spiral around themselves until they all die from exhaustion.


#antmill #ants #selforganization 

Original post:https://plus.google.com/u/0/117828903900236363024/posts/dy13nz8r6H9