ON THE ENERGETIC COST OF SOCIALITY

Measurements of oxygen consumption from ant colonies of various sizes of Odontomachus bauri, Camponotus rufipes and Zacryptocerus depressus showed a complex and nonlinear relationship between colony size and en ergy consumption per unit mass. Results show that at certain critical colony sizes, the colonies energy consumption is larger than the sum o f the average energy requirement of the individual workers, and near m aximal colony sizes, the energy consumption of the colony per unit mas s tends exponentially to that of the average individual worker. We pro pose that social complexity is related to energy consumption in a disc ontinuous manner and is bound by both, negentropy content of a society and social optimization mechanisms.