References

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Excavations and nest architecture

Williams, D. F., & Lofgren, C. S. (1988). Nest casting of some ground-dwelling Florida ant species using dental labstone. In Trager (ed.), Advances in Myrmecology, pp. 433–443. Brill.
Kleineidam, C., Ernst, R., & Roces, F. (2001). Wind-induced ventilation of the giant nests of the leaf-cutting ant Atta vollenweideri. Naturwissenschaften 88(7):301–305. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s001140100235
Moreira, A. A., Forti, L. C., Andrade, A. P. P., Boaretto, M. A. C., & Lopes, J. F. S. (2004). Nest architecture of Atta laevigata (F. Smith, 1858) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment 39(2):109–116.
Tschinkel, W. R. (2004). The nest architecture of the Florida harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex badius. Journal of Insect Science 4(1):21. https://academic.oup.com/jinsectscience/article/4/1/21/886534
Moser, J. C. (2006). Complete excavation and mapping of a Texas leafcutting ant nest. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 99(5):891–897.
Halboth, F., & Roces, F. (2011). The construction of turrets for nest ventilation in the grass-cutting ant Atta vollenweideri. J. Insect Behav. 25:296–310.
Pinto-Tomás, A. A., et al. (2014). Nest enlargement in leaf-cutting ants: relocated brood and fungus trigger the excavation of new chambers. PLOS ONE 9(5):e97872.
Pielström, S., & Roces, F. (2014). Soil moisture and excavation behaviour in the Chaco leaf-cutting ant (Atta vollenweideri). PMC 3991694.
Forti, L. C., Andrade, A. P. P., Camargo, R. S., Caldato, N., & Moreira, A. A. (2017). Discovering the giant nest architecture of grass-cutting ants, Atta capiguara (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Insects 8(2):39. https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/8/2/39
Halboth, F., & Roces, F. (2017). The construction of ventilation turrets in Atta vollenweideri leaf-cutting ants: CO₂ levels in nest tunnels influence turret structure. PLOS ONE 12(11):e0188162.
Tschinkel, W. R. (2017). Lifetime nest excavation and contents of mature colonies of Pogonomyrmex badius. Ecology (Scientific Naturalist).
Camargo, R. S., et al. (2020). Nest architecture and colony growth of Atta bisphaerica grass-cutting ants. PubMed 33137875.
Tschinkel, W. R. (2021). Ant Architecture: The Wonder, Beauty, and Science of Underground Nests. Princeton UP. ISBN 978-0-691-17931-5.
Jacoby, M. (1950, 1955). Original Brazilian-Portuguese papers on cement-cast methodology and Atta sexdens rubropilosa nest excavation. Citation incomplete — gap.

Communication, stigmergy, swarm intelligence

Grassé, P.-P. (1959). La reconstruction du nid et les coordinations interindividuelles chez Bellicositermes natalensis et Cubitermes sp. Insectes Sociaux 6:41–80.
Wilson, E. O. (1962). Chemical communication among workers of the fire ant Solenopsis saevissima. Animal Behaviour 10:134–164.
Theraulaz, G., & Bonabeau, E. (1999). A brief history of stigmergy. Artificial Life 5(2):97–116.
Bonabeau, E., Dorigo, M., & Theraulaz, G. (1999). Swarm Intelligence: From Natural to Artificial Systems. Oxford UP.
Dorigo, M., & Stützle, T. (2004). Ant Colony Optimization. MIT Press.
Heylighen, F. (2016). Stigmergy as a universal coordination mechanism (two-part survey). Cognitive Systems Research 38:4–13 and 50–59.
Marsh, L., & Onof, C. (2008). Stigmergic epistemology, stigmergic cognition. Cognitive Systems Research 9(1–2):136–149.

Collective intelligence and complex systems

Surowiecki, J. (2004). The Wisdom of Crowds. Doubleday.
Page, S. E. (2007). The Difference. Princeton UP.
Bettencourt, L. M. A., Lobo, J., Helbing, D., Kühnert, C., & West, G. B. (2007). Growth, innovation, scaling, and the pace of life in cities. PNAS 104(17):7301–7306.
Woolley, A. W., et al. (2010). Evidence for a collective intelligence factor in the performance of human groups. Science 330(6004):686–688.
Bettencourt, L. M. A. (2013). The origins of scaling in cities. Science 340(6139):1438–1441.
Malone, T. W., & Bernstein, M. S. (eds., 2015). Handbook of Collective Intelligence. MIT Press.
West, G. B. (2017). Scale. Penguin.
Hutchins, E. (1995). Cognition in the Wild. MIT Press.
Henrich, J. (2015). The Secret of Our Success. Princeton UP.
Boyd, R., & Richerson, P. J. (2005). The Origin and Evolution of Cultures. OUP.

Lifecycle, superorganism biology, ecology

Hölldobler, B., & Wilson, E. O. (1990). The Ants. Belknap / Harvard UP.
Hölldobler, B., & Wilson, E. O. (2009). The Superorganism. W. W. Norton.
Currie, C. R., Mueller, U. G., & Malloch, D. (1999). The agricultural pathology of ant fungus gardens. PNAS 96(14):7998–8002.
Currie, C. R., et al. (2003). Ancient tripartite coevolution in the attine ant–microbe symbiosis. Science 299(5605):386–388.
Wirth, R., Herz, H., Ryel, R. J., Beyschlag, W., & Hölldobler, B. (2003). Herbivory of Leaf-Cutting Ants. Springer Ecological Studies 164.
Moutinho, P., Nepstad, D. C., & Davidson, E. A. (2003). Influence of leaf-cutting ant nests on secondary forest growth and soil properties in Amazonia. Ecology 84(5):1265–1276.
Hou, C., Kaspari, M., Vander Zanden, H. B., & Gillooly, J. F. (2010). Energetic basis of colonial living in social insects. PNAS 107(8):3634–3638.

Collapse — human and biological

Tainter, J. A. (1988). The Collapse of Complex Societies. Cambridge UP.
Holling, C. S. (2001). Understanding the complexity of economic, ecological, and social systems. Ecosystems 4(5):390–405.
Gunderson, L. H., & Holling, C. S. (eds., 2002). Panarchy. Island Press.
Turchin, P. (2003). Historical Dynamics. Princeton UP.
Walker, B., et al. (2004). Resilience, adaptability and transformability in social–ecological systems. Ecology and Society 9(2):5.
Diamond, J. (2005). Collapse. Viking.
Cox-Foster, D. L., et al. (2007). A metagenomic survey of microbes in honey bee colony collapse disorder. Science 318(5848):283–287.
McAnany, P. A., & Yoffee, N. (eds., 2009). Questioning Collapse. Cambridge UP.
Turchin, P., & Nefedov, S. A. (2009). Secular Cycles. Princeton UP.
vanEngelsdorp, D., & Meixner, M. D. (2010). A historical review of managed honey bee populations in Europe and the United States. J. Invertebrate Pathology 103:S80–S95.
Sánchez-Bayo, F., & Wyckhuys, K. A. G. (2019). Worldwide decline of the entomofauna. Biological Conservation 232:8–27.
Wagner, D. L., et al. (2021). Insect decline in the Anthropocene: Death by a thousand cuts. PNAS 118(2):e2023989118.
Cooling, M., et al. (2022). Pathogen-mediated natural and manipulated population collapse in an invasive social insect. PMC 9168452.

Popular-press articles on the A. laevigata cast

These are aggregations / re-circulations of the Forti lab’s published work; included for traceability of what triggered the project, not as citable evidence.

Civilizational Collapse