CLUSTERING EXPERIMENT: BNU, 7 Nov 2013


Animal: ants (Camponotus Japonicus, referred to as ``big ants'')

Objective: 
We wish to see if clustering occurs also for these big ants
which move much faster than the small ants used previously.

Summary: 
The experiment started with 44 ants (density=39/dm2) 
As no stable cluster
appeared after several hours, the number of ants was doubled
to 90 (density=80/dm2). In these conditions, a high-density
aggregate appeared fairly quickly (f12) but it took much longer
for a real cluster to form, namely a cluster  
where the ants are on top of one another (f13). 

Chronology:
f1 (16:55): Start of the experiment with 44 ants
f12 (20:49): Number of ants increased to 90
f13 (23:37): Formation of a cluster but some 28% of the ants
remain outside.