Ants Have Teacher-Pupil Relationships

LONDON, Jan. 12, 2006 (UPI) British biologists have discovered that ants teach each other how to get food, in the first known example of a teacher-pupil relationship in non-humans.

Nigel Franks, a biologist at the University of Bristol, says members of the ant species Temnothorax albipennis use a technique known as tandem running to teach each other how to get from the nest to a food stash.

"While it's well known that animals will mimic each other, so one animal is learning from another . . . there's sort of a two-way street in teaching that defines true teaching," he said.

A report by Franks and colleague Tom Richardson appear in the journal Nature.

In a tandem run, the lead ant only continues forward when frequently tapped on its legs and abdomen by the following ant's antennae. When a gap appears between the two, each ant adjusts its speed to close it.

The lead ant could reach the food stash four times faster when not slowed by a follower, researchers said. But the follower ant finds the food faster than when searching alone and is ultimately able to quickly run solo errands.

Copyright 2006 United Press International.