Messor barbarus causes 50–100% of the seed losses and is the most common ant in arable fields in northeastern Spain (Westerman et al. 2012).

Trails were likewise differentially favored according to the relative abundance of resources provided to the ant populations.

For trails spanning long distances, ants exhibit behavior of strong chemical marking on preferred seeds to allow for the creation and maintenance of the route.

The trail is adjusted by a fleet of initial scouts which enhance the harvesting patterns to select for the preferred seed size.

The collective action of M. barbarus favors the minimization of foraging time rather than maximized efficiency of the energetic gain per item harvested.

On the whole, group cooperation allows for a successful balance to be struck between the benefits of maximized food exploitation and colony-wide energy gain and the costs associated with increased predation risk.

The net result of this is that given a variety of options for aggregation sites, colonies will differentially forage in resource-rich regions.

This behavior results from collective decision on behalf of the group executed through independently acting individuals in the population.

This behavior is relatively common, and is accomplished by directly removing the harvested seeds from the traveling ant populations, or through more indirect mechanisms of territory-defense, physical threat displays and altercations, chemically induced deterrents, and nest-plugging.