Mass recruitment by army ants

Abstract

A single army ant (Ecitoninae) can attract and direct scores of workers to prey by means of a chemical trail and momentary contact between the recruiter and workers on a raid column. Recruited workers, in turn, attract more ants, resulting in a continuous stream of recruits. While the recruitment mechanism is basically similar, the speed and the number of ants recruited are greater for army ants than for other ants.