  It is well stablished that danger information can be transmitted by ants
through relatively small distances, provoking either a state of alarm when they
move away from potentially dangerous stimulus, or charge toward it
aggressively. There is almost no knowledge if danger information can be
transmitted along large distances. In this paper, we perturb leaf cutting ants
of the species Atta insularis while they forage in their natural evioronment at
a certain point of the foraging line, so ants make a "U" turn to escape from
the danger zone and go back to the nest. Our results strongly suggest that
those ants do not transmit "danger information" to other nestmates marching
towards the danger area. The individualistic behavior of the ants returning
from the danger zone results in a depression of the foraging activity due to
the systematic sacrifice of non-informed individuals.
