Many ants have vision and hearing, but their main sensory system is the chemical senses. How do they distinguish “friends” from “strangers” by smell when they use rhythmic touching, chirping and pheromones in communication? How does the social life of ants work, when an individual begins to claim dominance, and what does it mean to curl up in a “suitcase”?
Evgeniy Burgov, an employee of the robotics laboratory of the National Research Center Kurchatov Institute and the IEE RAS, spoke about what a tactile code is and how ants use the “language of poses.” You can listen to the podcast using the link.
Even more amazing facts about ants can be found in Evgeniy’s group “Formica Ants” (Telegram/VK).
This is not the first time Evgeniy has participated in the RIA Novosti podcast:
- in the episode “Make love not work: polymorphism and ant castes” he talked about the structure of the ant family and castes;
- in the issue “Robbery, cannibalism, extermination: ant wars” he explained why experienced, authoritative ants play a special role at the beginning of the battle;
- and in the episode “Ants will be the first to get into cyberpunk. What roboticists learn from nature” Evgeniy shared how knowledge about ants is used in robotics.