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authorHolden Rohrer <hr@hrhr.dev>2021-01-10 14:23:57 -0500
committerHolden Rohrer <hr@hrhr.dev>2021-01-10 14:23:57 -0500
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+Antlions, like many predators, collect prey by passively trapping them
+in pits of their own design.
+But only so many pits can fit in so much space, so antlions have
+evolved the means to distribute their prey-catching.
+Antlions, being members of the same species, likely cooperate to create
+the best results for continued reproduction.
+However, the methods by which they might communicate are unclear.
+The individuals certainly are not intelligent enough to deliberately
+construct a social framework by careful analysis, and pheremones require
+much more machinery than can be expected of an invertebrate's larvae.
+
+In a previous study, it was observed that spatial constraints do affect
+the organization of the group, especially in terms of the depth and
+width of the pits which form.
+Those antlions which do form pits form smaller pits, possibly to allow
+for the introduction of a greater quantity of ants (antlions' primary
+prey)
+There are three hypothetical means by which they could discover their
+environment: the trails other antlions leave, the obstacles which they
+see in their environment, and the presence of gradients created by other
+antlions.
+To study which of these was the primary method by which their behavior
+is determined, each of these pathways was interrupted, either with
+artificial obstacles, artifical pits, or artificial removal of the trail
+lines created by their migrations.
+Similar to the previous study, pit depth, width, the distance to the
+nearest neighbor, and coordinate organization were recorded.
+Through prior investigation and research it was determined that antlions
+generally tend to avoid highly aggressive competition and likely form
+semi-hexagonal patterns to evenly distribute resources across the
+population (given that each individual could only consume so many ants).
+
+These facts created the conditions for the development of this
+hypothesis: ``Antlions likely lack an intelligent mode of communication,
+so interruptions in the environment (removal of trails, introduction of
+physical obstacles, fictional pits) will not impact their ability to
+form nesting patterns, except insofar as they cannot nest immediately
+adjacent to the obstacles because the primary regulating method is
+cannibalism.''
+The dependent variables throughout the experiment were the settlement
+patterns and behaviors of the antlions, which were quantified through
+the nearest neighbor calculation, pit depth and width, and the number of
+dead antlions.
+The previous study will be examined as a control trial (as it had no
+artificial interruptions), and two box sizes were used in this
+experiment to see how a bottom-up behavioral explanation compares to
+top-down social organization.
+The restriction of available space may show up in the artificial
+obstacle trial as a large explanatory variable for the antlions'
+organizational choices.