Natures wonders: ant rafts have set crews! (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, April 19, 2016, 16:33 (3138 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: QUOTE: "In addition, they found the presence of brood, or immature members of the ant society, modified workers' position and raft shape. Surprisingly, they found workers' experience in the first rafting trial with brood influenced their behavior and raft shape in the subsequent trial without brood.
> "They believe this is the first time memory has been demonstrated in so-called self-assemblages."
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> Clearly, then, the learners learn and at the same time the mature workers make adjustments - rather like the interchange between receptive teachers and receptive students. These assemblages are not fixed, even though the basic structure remains the same. -Of course they had to adjust for passengers, but they still kept their same basic positions, which means they have some adaptation ability to reorganize.-> ***
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> David's comment: If they all know where to place themselves, it smells like instinct to me. It makes no sense they practiced their positions in advance of getting hit with a flood. By living in a flood prone area, I'm sure the instinct developed by necessity.
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> dhw: The practice would certainly have originated and developed by necessity, but there must have been a first time, just as there must have been a first chain, ladder, wall etc., and unless you wish to tell us that your God gave lessons to the originators of each structure.....I would suggest that the whole technology is much akin to the manner in which humans make and modify such structures - by using their intelligence.-I'm sure there was a first time and instinct developed with a degree of adaptability for the size of a crowd of brood passengers, since saving the brood is a necessity. I suspect the development of instinct is a God-given property.