How do ants community assign work force on tunnel digging?

If 30% of an ant colony does 70% of the work, that means the other 70% do 30% of the remaining work. The rest of the work could mean collecting food, tend to the eggs, etc., which is done by the remaining 70%.

You're curious if ants build multiple tunnels at the same time. My assumption is that they do, because more tunnels in ant nests means more food for colony -- it would be advantageous to their survival. According to this article, increased connectivity among chambers leads to more social interactions among the ants within the nest. So when one group of ants within a colony--comprised of individuals working toward a common goal--finds a particularly good source of food, it's able to more quickly communicate that finding to the rest of the colony.

Let me know if you have further questions, oemBiology

I would like to know on following issues as shown below:

1) How do ants communicate to each other on how many ants go out and search for foods?
If not, they may all go out searching for foods at the same time.

2) How many job roles are classified within ants community?

Do you find any articles related to above issue?
Thank you very much for any suggestions (^v^)

Ants’ jobs are determined and can be changed by age. As ants grow older their jobs move them further from the queen, or center of the colony. Younger ants work within the nest protecting the queen and young. Sometimes, a queen is not present and is replaced by egg-laying workers. These worker ants can only lay haploid eggs producing sterile offspring. Despite the title of queen, she doesn't delegate the tasks to the worker ants; however, the ants choose their tasks based on personal preference. Ants as a colony also work as a collective "super mind". Ants can compare areas and solve complex problems by using information gained by each member of the colony to find the best nesting site or to find food.


As mentioned previously with your inquiry on bees, via pheromones. Workers release pheromones with specific messages, such as "follow me to food" or "Attack the intruder". Nestmates recognize one another by chemicals that cover their bodies. The queen is coated with a unique blend of chemicals that advertises her presence. In addition, ants can also use touch and vibration to communicate in some situations.

These two articles cover ant pheromones quote well:

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6921000/pdf/insects-10-00383.pdf
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3291321/pdf/cib-5-78.pdf

In reference to your original question, it's best if you read up on the journal article that was used to report the story. I found the journal article here.

Let me know if you have further questions...

Thank you very much for suggestions (^v^)