Table 1.
Return rate of foragers, interaction rate of outgoing foragers and number of ants in the vestibule during the low and high forager return rate periods in experiment 1
| Colony | Forager return rate (ants/s) (Nr)* |
Mean±SD interaction rate (interactions/s) (Nf)† |
Mean±SD number of ants in vestibule (Nc‡; D§) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | High | Low | High | Low | High | |
| 486 | 1.14(179) | 2.29 (176) | 1.43±0.74 (80) | 2.68±0.99 (100) | 26.16±8.4 (6; 2.63) | 35.75±4.35 (4; 1.28) |
| 672 | 0.45 (74) | 0.67 (109) | 1.11±0.69(100) | 1.55±0.75 (80) | 21.16±3.25 (6; 2.7) | 21.86±3.02 (7; 2.77) |
| 977 | 0.18 (36) | 0.82 (71) | 0.69±0.29 (34) | 1.33±0.61 (21) | 11 ±4.04 (8; 3.31) | 22.6±3.71 (5; 1.45) |
*
Nr: number of returning foragers.
†
Nf: number of focal foragers tracked.
‡
Nc: number of counts performed.
§
D: duration of forager return rate period analysed (minutes).