Ants

The robot arm hovered over the nest, steadied itself against the blast of hot wind, then lowered with tedious care to the ground. The operator, Kell, took a breath and released a few parasilicon beads into the entrance. Counted to ten. Released a few more.

Evidenced by tiny puffs of dust, the foragers were moving around, "sniffing" the beads, likely, picking up the scouts' chemical signatures artfully applied by Kell in the coolness of the lab. In a moment, they would swarm out of the nest, heading in all directions. None would return until they had found something edible. The foragers never made this decision on their own, as individuals. It was a decision made by chemicals, timing, and numbers. Gordon ants on this planet behaved exactly as harvester ants did on Earth.

He waited. His prediction was rewarded by the sudden emergence of dozens of foragers, their huge mandibles clacking loudly enough for Kell to hear.

Gratified, he sat back against the worn seat of the lab, tapped the results with his fingerDroid, and took a thinkbreak.

Overhead, the sun shimmered. One more day and he would be freed from this assignment. He thought of Yuye Wauk, safe in his village. He thought of the desert valley that separated Yuye from the interlopers who had at first built only isolated huts, nonthreatening, merely interesting. But their numbers had soon multiplied. Yuye, of course, had welcomed them, taught them, even took one to wife. Kell did not trust them, with their blunt teeth and droning voices, wingless and weakened versions of the Salixeum. Their temples had already fallen into the sand.

The robot rattled as if pelted by stones. Kell looked up to see foragers tapping energetically on the windscreen. He cursed. Obviously, the worn seals had leaked his scent and the foragers had linked onto it as a source of food. He increased the tesla feed by a notch, and the foragers leapt off the screen. He wouldn't wait to see if they were angry yet, when nothing would stop them from finding, shredding, and carting his body back to the nest. With a nearly human shiver, the robot lifted, shaking off the last of the foragers, and Kell headed back to BaseCamp for the last time.  
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Listen to Deborah Gordon talking about ant behavior: 
http://www.ted.com/talks/deborah_gordon_digs_ants.html