From individual to collective dynamics in Argentine ants (Linepithema humile)

• We describe the distribution of turning angles of individual ants foraging.
• We propose a mathematical model of ants foraging in an empty arena.
• We compare the proposed model to the experiment results.
• Persistence and reinforcement are sufficient to describe motion of ants.

In this paper we propose a model for the formation of paths in Argentine ants when foraging in an empty arena. Based on experimental observations, we provide a distribution for the random change in direction that they approximately undergo while foraging as a mixture of a Gaussian and a Pareto distribution. By following the principles described in previous work [32], we consider persistence and reinforcement to create a model for the motion of ants in the plane. Numerical simulations based on this model lead to the formation of branched ant-trails analogous to those observed experimentally.