A colony of social insects has many tasks to complete for the good of the colony. The tasks, such as brood care, feeding, foraging and building, could be split among its members (implying specialization). Alternatively, ants could just freely switch between tasks, either doing whatever needs to be done or whatever tasks they come into contact with. If individuals switch from one task to another, they may incur costs, including a time cost. So far, research has yet to quantify such task switching costs. To learn more about switching cost, specifically quantifying the cost in terms of time, videos of Temnothorax rugatulus were observed for specific tasks, such as brood care, feeding, foraging and building. The switching costs were measured in two ways depending on whether the non-switching time or switching time were being measured. For the non-switching time between bouts of the same task, the interval time started when the ant stopped touching the brood item and ended when the ant started touching the brood item. For the switching time between two different tasks, time began when the ant stopped one task and ended when the ant began a second task. The interval time was calculated by recording the time, using the timeline on the video, that the ant stopped one task (or bout of one task) and moved on the next. The data collected from the videos were analyzed using a Welch Two-Sample T-test. Through the study, it was discovered that there was, in fact, no significant delay when Temnothorax rugatulus switch from one task to another.

The distribution of resources is vital to any system or society. This is particularly true of social insect colonies where independent access to resources is not available to all members. Only a fraction of individuals are responsible for obtaining food for the colony from outside the nest. Surprisingly little is known about how this food is subsequently distributed to members inside the nest. The work in this thesis is focused around a set of food distribution experiments conducted using four colonies of the ant Temnothorax albipennis. The study applies a well-used technique in a new way to investigate the distribution of food under two different scenarios: feeding under normal conditions and famine relief feeding after a period of starvation. All ants in each colony are marked and then individually tracked recording every feeding interaction to obtain a complete network of food transmission. This work has shown that all four colonies efficiently relieved the famine within 30 minutes of introducing new food. This process was facilitated by workers abandoning their spatial structure and expanding their space use; feeding multiple recipients from a single donor; and simultaneously spreading stored food and new food. Recruitment of foragers did not play a major role in relieving the famine but foragers were responsible for most of the first round of feeding. The study revealed that not all members received the same amount of food and most ants received food in multiple feeding interactions. The transmission pathways used to distribute the food present an opportunity for harmful substances to spread. The pathways are explored in this context to see whether the colonies might aim to minimize the spread by partitioning the pathways or maximise spread by mixing to promote social immunity. The study reveals behavioural differences between the four colonies which are likely to result from the inherent variation in demographic and geometric properties. These differences highlight the flexibility of ant colonies during problem solving under different conditions.