DOI: 10.5061/dryad.45nr3
title: Data from: A comparative approach to cooperative transport in ants: individual persistence correlates with group coordination

description: When groups of ants work together to carry large objects—called
 cooperative transport—they must form consensus on a travel direction. In
 many species, groups are unsuccessful at this decision, and deadlock. In
 other collective decisions, including nest-site selection in honeybees,
 individuals’ enthusiasm or recruitment intensity for a given option
 affects the selection process. A similar mechanism may be important during
 cooperative transport in ants and may account for coordination differences
 among species. Results from theoretical models suggest that individuals’
 persistence—their reluctance to give up or change their preferred
 direction—may promote coordination. More persistent individuals formed
 more successful groups in a theoretical context. As an empirical test of
 this hypothesis, I examined cooperative transport in four ant species that
 differ substantially in their group-level coordination, from exceedingly
 coordinated to rarely successful. I focused on the beginning of transport,
 evaluating groups’ transitions from uncoordinated to successful. I
 measured two types of persistence at the individual level—total engagement
 effort and local engagement time—and I measured group coordination for
 each species. In one species, I also manipulated persistence by adding a
 force equivalent to infinitely persistent ants to the existing transport
 groups. Species with more persistent individuals succeeded more often and
 formed more coordinated transport groups, with more direct paths.
 Furthermore, adding two infinitely persistent ants to the existing groups
 seemed to moderately increase their path directness. These results support
 the hypothesis that high individual persistence promotes group
 coordination during cooperative transport, and this study informs the
 mechanisms of emergent coordination.
description: Persistence data for
 individuals in 4 ant speciesThis is a .csv file that
 contains persistence data for individuals in four ant species. Individuals
 were recorded attempting to move a large, dead cricket that was pinned to
 the ground. A pulling bout begins when an individual begins pulling on the
 object, and ends when the individual stops pulling for at least 1 second,
 or changes the direction of pulling by more than 45 degrees (in which case
 a new bout immediately begins). For each individual, this file includes
 the species and colony of the individual, the number of pulling bouts, the
 mean and standard deviation of length of bouts, the total pulling time,
 and the proportion of time the individual was pulling.persistenceData.csvSinuosity data for groups of ants in 4 speciesThis is a .csv file that contains sinuosity data for groups of ants engaging in cooperative transport of food items, in each of four species. For each group (each trial), the data includes the species and colony, the type and mass of object being carried, the path length of the group, the displacement, and the sinuosity for that trial.sinuosityData.csvSinuosity data for Formica podzolica groups before and after adding infinitely persistence ant(s)This is a .csv file that contains sinuosity data for groups of Formica podzolica ants engaged in cooperative transport. For each trial, it includes the sinuosity both before and after an experimental manipulation. The manipulation was to exert on the object being carried the pulling force of one or two infinitely persistent F. podzolica ants. For each trial, the data file includes the colony ID, the mass of the object being carried, the treatment (force of one ant, two ants, or control with no force added), whether the record is for before of after the manipulation, and the sinuosity.manipulationData.csv