Models of Task Allocation in Social Insects

This thesis studies social insects, such as ants and bees, who live in colonies of up to millions of individuals. These individuals need to appropriately engage in a variety of tasks only relying on their limited local knowledge. From different novel perspectives, we apply computational and mathematical models to explore the underlying mechanisms of task allocation. Our methodology demonstrates a set of modelling approaches in this interdisciplinary field of study. Our outcomes can be used to explain and predict collective behaviours in social insects, to guide further biological experiments and may ultimately benefit bio-inspired applications.