Study
Self-organized shortcuts in the Argentine ant
Goss, Simon; Aron, Serge; Deneubourg, Jean-Louis; Pasteels, Jacques M.
Naturwissenschaften, 1989
A colony was connected to a food source by a bridge that split into two branches of different lengths, and the proportion of ants using each branch over time was recorded.
- Studied in
- Linepithema humile
- Sample size
- colony-level trials
Ants converged almost entirely on the shorter branch within minutes, because ants taking it returned sooner and reinforced its pheromone trail faster.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Shortest-path selection emerges from simple local rules and trail reinforcement, with no individual comparing the routes.
How NatureHQ reads it
The single best demonstration that colony-level problem solving needs no clever individuals. No ant measures anything; the shorter path simply accumulates pheromone faster, and the colony behaves as though it chose. This experiment also gave computer science ant colony optimisation, which is now used in real routing problems.
- One species with strong trail-laying behaviour.
- Simple geometry; ants perform less well on some other bridge configurations.
- Colony-level result; individual behaviour is inferred from the aggregate.
The double bridge
How does an ant colony find the shortest route to food when no individual ant can compare the options?
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Animal communication
Much animal communication happens in channels people cannot perceive at all
Ants
An ant colony finds the shortest route without any ant comparing the options
Ants
Crowded ant trails sort themselves into lanes with nothing organising them
Ants
The queen lays eggs. She does not give orders, and nothing else does either
Published by: Springer journalsPublished in a Springer 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.