Ants

Trophallaxis, the mouth to mouth regurgitation and transfer of liquid food between members of eusocial insect societies, is an important process that allows the fast and efficient dissemination of food in the colony.

We consider a simple trophallactic system of randomly interacting agents with finite carrying capacity, and calculate analytically and via a series of simulations the global food intake rate for the whole colony as well as observables describing how uniformly the food is distributed within the colony. Our work serves as a starting model to describe the collective properties of more complex trophallactic systems, such as those including separation of identity between foragers and workers.

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