TEACHING is all about give and take, and even ants seem to realise this. The first evidence of two-way communication between ants, suggests that complex behaviour evolved long before big brains.
Nigel Franks and Tom Richardson of Bristol University, UK, found teaching behaviour among foraging Temnothorax albipennis ants. When leading one another from the nest to a food source the leader moves only when tapped on its abdomen by the follower ant. The follower often stops to learn the route, so it controls the leader’s speed.
Follower ants found food faster this way than when searching for it alone. This…
