---
title: "Ant colonies · Collective systems · Entities · Simulation Hypothesis"
url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/entities/c-ants
description: "Colonies pick the better nest because individual ants follow a quorum threshold. No ant compares the sites overall."
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)"
---

[Entities](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/entities) › Collective systems

# Ant colonies

Colonies pick the better nest because individual ants follow a quorum threshold. No ant compares the sites overall.

What’s measured

Recruitment rates, quorum thresholds and the choices colonies make between nest sites of different quality.

## Evidence

* Colonies pick the better nest because individual ants follow a quorum threshold. No ant compares the sites overall.  
Pratt SC, Mallon EB, Sumpter DJT, Franks NR (2002) Quorum sensing, recruitment, and collective decision-making during colony emigration by the ant Leptothorax albipennis. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 52(2):117-127\. doi:10.1007/s00265-002-0487-x.

Research on collective intelligence studies how groups decide. It doesn't claim that the group itself has experiences.

In the trees

[One queen, many workers · Ethics](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/trees/ethics?n=e-eusocial)