Emergence of complex behavior in termites

In this paper, we showed that the network of encounters and interactions among specific individuals is selective, and our data strongly suggests that preferential attachments, a phenomenon not reported previously, and favorite interactions with a limited number of acquaintances are responsible for the generation of Levy movement patterns in these social insects. (PNAS May 18, 2021 118 (20) e2004369118 at https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2004369118

 Why do termites spiral like tiny tornadoes?   Here we decoded the complex collective behaviours of termites, revealing how these insects self-organize into distinct motion phases: disordered, packed clusters, and circular milling. The research combines lab experiments with advanced computational analysis to map how termites transition between phases—a process governed by collisions, and alignment.  Using video tracking and statistical physics tools, the team confined termites in circular arenas and analysed their movements.  These transitions mirror phase changes in non-living active matter, such as robot swarms, highlighting universal principles of collective behaviour. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsif.2025.0097

Here we propose using the visibility graphs and network analysis to identify and characterize collective behavior.  The visibility algorithm converts a time series into a graph, where every node corresponds, in the same order, to series data.  We could identify an emergent collective behavior as the density of termites in the arena is increased. Moreover, we find that such onset of complexity is maximized for intermediate termite densities.

Here, we studied an isolated termite inside the arenas. Our results showed that free termite displacement, in space and time, presents self-similar patterns highly consistent with anomalous diffusion.  We showed that termites perform superdiffusive displacements, suggesting that this movement pattern is important for developing social interactions upon which self-organization at the colony level is built. (PLoS ONE 9(10): e111183)

Here we investigated as the density and proportion soldier:worker modulate the termite movements.

In this paper we developed a methodology to mark termites so we could track them easily.