Study
Teaching in tandem-running ants
Franks, Nigel R.; Richardson, Tom
Nature, 2006
Leader and follower ants running in tandem to a new nest site were filmed and timed. The pace of the leader was compared against whether the follower was in contact, and the follower's subsequent solo performance was measured.
- Studied in
- Temnothorax albipennis
- Sample size
- tandem pairs recorded across colonies
Leaders slowed when the follower fell behind and sped up when tapped, adjusting their pace to the follower. Followers found the destination faster afterwards than they would have alone, and the leader's own journey took longer than a solo run would have.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Tandem running meets the formal criteria for teaching: a cost to the teacher, a modification of behaviour in the presence of a naive individual, and faster learning by the pupil.
How NatureHQ reads it
This was the first case of an insect satisfying a formal definition of teaching that had been written with vertebrates in mind — feedback between the two animals in both directions, and a real cost to the leader. It is not teaching in the human sense of intending to instruct; it is a behavioural pattern that meets a functional definition, which is exactly the sort of distinction that gets lost in a headline.
- Meets a functional definition; says nothing about intention or understanding.
- One small ant species with unusually deliberate nest-moving behaviour.
- Laboratory arenas simplify the navigation problem.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Nature PortfolioPublished in a Nature Portfolio journal.
This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref and OpenAlex on 2026-08-11.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-09.