This repository implements several swarm optimization algorithms and visualizes them. Implemented algorithms: Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Firefly Algorithm (FA), Cuckoo Search (CS), Ant Colony ...

Ant colonies run like living bodies. Queens produce offspring. Workers clean, feed, and defend. And brood develop quietly in the nursery. When disease slips in, the whole “superorganism” is at risk.

In a wide range of social species, when an animal is sick, it takes itself away from its group. Ant pupae are unable to move, however, so they've developed a unique mechanism that leads them to ...

Illness usually brings trouble in the animal world. A weak member may be pushed aside, attacked, or left behind. Many animals go to great lengths to hide sickness. But for creatures bound by family, ...

Ant pupae that are fatally sick don’t hide their condition; instead, they release a special scent that warns the rest of the colony. This signal prompts worker ants to open the pupae’s cocoons and ...

Sick young ants release a smell to tell worker ants to destroy them to protect the colony from infection, scientists said Tuesday, adding that queens do not seem to commit this act of self-sacrifice.

New research shows that terminally ill baby ants tell other ants to kill them, potentially protecting the rest of the colony from their infection. In a study published today in the journal Nature ...

The unusual life cycles of ants are deeply rooted in their social nature. Ants and other social insects like termites, some bees, and certain wasps live in colonies, in which most individuals never ...

A sneaky, stealthy parasite queen can turn an ant colony against itself. Newly-mated queens of two parasitic ant species have been found to sneak into an ant colony, creep towards the resident ant ...

Scientists document a new form of host manipulation where an invading, parasitic ant queen "tricks" ant workers into killing their queen mother. The invading ant integrates herself into the nest by ...