The image shows the pattern made by an insect which chewed out tunnels between two sheets of rigid blue styrofoam insulation.
The insulation was stacked faces together and left under an oak tree for a few years and when I moved one sheet off the other I noticed that there were several different types of tunneling geometry visible on the surfaces of the foam. (I will upload other patterns soon)
If you are familiar with the Dutch elm beatle borings under the bark of American elm trees [1] - you know that the above tunnel pattern is not that of a Dutch elm beatle. Termites create another distict pattern.
I will bet that every tunneling/boring insect has a distict tunnel pattern. If every insect creates a different distinct pattern, than the pattern has to be in the dna of the insect (assuming the pattern is not learned behavior).
Again, assuming, that the tunneling is a type of search - either a search for food, or a search for a place to lay larvae, or a search for a secure over-wintering spot - then this distinct tunnel pattern is a search algorithm that is in the insects' dna.
Is this search algorithm an efficient one?
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| search-algorithm-P1550805.jpg [2] | 121.89 KB |
