An Evolutionary Simulation of the Origin of Pheromone Communication

Social insects exhibit complex and adaptive behavior. In particular, it is well known that ants solve difficult problems, for instance selecting the shortest pathway, by communicating with each other via pheromone. The fundamental question regarding pheromone communication is: How have the pheromone communication systems emerged? This paper introduces the ant foraging model for evolution of pheromone communication, in which neural networks of ant agents evolve based on the result of foraging. The results of the computer experiments show that ants using emerged pheromone communication are more adaptive for foraging food resources than ants without pheromone communication. Furthermore, the results suggest that cleverer pheromone communication emerged through evolution than human designed pheromone communication.