TY - JOUR
T1 - Recurrence analysis of ant activity patterns
AU - Neves, Felipe Marcel
AU - Viana, Ricardo Luiz
AU - Pie, Marcio Roberto
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Neves et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2017/10/9
Y1 - 2017/10/9
N2 - In this study, we used recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) and recurrence plots (RPs) to compare the movement activity of individual workers of three ant species, as well as a gregarious beetle species. RQA and RPs quantify the number and duration of recurrences of a dynamical system, including a detailed quantification of signals that could be stochastic, deterministic, or both. First, we found substantial differences between the activity dynamics of beetles and ants, with the results suggesting that the beetles have quasi-periodic dynamics and the ants do not. Second, workers from different ant species varied with respect to their dynamics, presenting degrees of predictability as well as stochastic signals. Finally, differences were found among minor and major caste of the same (dimorphic) ant species. Our results underscore the potential of RQA and RPs in the analysis of complex behavioral patterns, as well as in general inferences on animal behavior and other biological phenomena.
AB - In this study, we used recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) and recurrence plots (RPs) to compare the movement activity of individual workers of three ant species, as well as a gregarious beetle species. RQA and RPs quantify the number and duration of recurrences of a dynamical system, including a detailed quantification of signals that could be stochastic, deterministic, or both. First, we found substantial differences between the activity dynamics of beetles and ants, with the results suggesting that the beetles have quasi-periodic dynamics and the ants do not. Second, workers from different ant species varied with respect to their dynamics, presenting degrees of predictability as well as stochastic signals. Finally, differences were found among minor and major caste of the same (dimorphic) ant species. Our results underscore the potential of RQA and RPs in the analysis of complex behavioral patterns, as well as in general inferences on animal behavior and other biological phenomena.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0185968
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0185968
M3 - Article (journal)
C2 - 29016648
AN - SCOPUS:85031023818
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 12
JO - PLoS One
JF - PLoS One
IS - 10
M1 - e0185968
ER -