Trail pheromones of ants

Identifying the first ant trail pheromone required 3.7 kilograms of dried ants—that's how challenging chemical signaling research is. Yet ants detect these compounds at 80 femtograms per centimeter (8×10⁻¹⁴ g/cm), demonstrating signal sensitivity that puts human technology to shame. This comprehensive review documents how trail pheromones may comprise a single compound or up to 14 in a blend, arising from various glands. The signal architecture is remarkably sophisticated: volatile enough to spread but stable enough to persist, specific enough to identify species but general enough to recruit colony members. For business, ant trail systems demonstrate stigmergic coordination—indirect communication through environmental modification. Amazon's recommendation algorithms and Google's PageRank work on similar principles: signals left by previous users guide subsequent behavior without direct communication. The research also reveals that contamination at parts-per-billion levels can disrupt communication—a lesson in how small signal interference can disable entire coordination systems.