Originally Posted by
gavin
I'd argue: there *could* be a chemical reason. There doesn't have to be. Bees seem to have a sense of the quantitative and it doesn't always involve a pheromone or scent. That scout assessing a potential new home - it estimates the volume of the cavity and very likely isn't using chemicals to do so. The forager knows the distance the trip took. The queen sees the size of the cell she could reverse into (OK, there could be a signal left by the workers but no-one talks about that). It seems like a very basic appreciation of the environment that all organisms possess: how many of my colleagues are there here? The cues used could be diverse. In a social animal 'there's not very many of us!' must be a potent trigger for a change in behaviour (nowt wrong with a spot of anthropomorphising!).
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