scholarly journals Path integration in desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis

1988 ◽  
Vol 85 (14) ◽  
pp. 5287-5290 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Muller ◽  
R. Wehner
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Desert Ants ◽  
Cataglyphis Fortis

scholarly journals Flexible weighing of olfactory and vector information in the desert ant Cataglyphis fortis

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 20130070 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelia Buehlmann ◽  
Bill S. Hansson ◽  
Markus Knaden
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Feeding Site ◽  
Desert Ants ◽  
Desert Ant ◽  
Vector Information ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
Path Integrator ◽  
Odour Plumes ◽  
Cataglyphis Fortis

Desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis , are equipped with remarkable skills that enable them to navigate efficiently. When travelling between the nest and a previously visited feeding site, they perform path integration (PI), but pinpoint the nest or feeder by following odour plumes. Homing ants respond to nest plumes only when the path integrator indicates that they are near home. This is crucial, as homing ants often pass through plumes emanating from foreign nests and do not discriminate between the plume of their own and that of a foreign nest, but should absolutely avoid entering a wrong nest. Their behaviour towards food odours differs greatly. Here, we show that in ants on the way to food, olfactory information outweighs PI information. Although PI guides ants back to a learned feeder, the ants respond to food odours independently of whether or not they are close to the learned feeding site. This ability is beneficial, as new food sources—unlike foreign nests—never pose a threat but enable ants to shorten distances travelled while foraging. While it has been shown that navigating C. fortis ants rely strongly on PI, we report here that the ants retained the necessary flexibility in the use of PI.

scholarly journals Visual navigation in desert ants Cataglyphis fortis: are snapshots coupled to a celestial system of reference?

2002 ◽  
Vol 205 (14) ◽  
pp. 1971-1978 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Åkesson ◽  
Rüdiger Wehner
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Visual Navigation ◽  
Central Place Foraging ◽  
Nest Location ◽  
Compass Direction ◽  
Desert Ants ◽  
Reference Information ◽  
Cataglyphis Fortis

SUMMARY Central-place foraging insects such as desert ants of the genus Cataglyphis use both path integration and landmarks to navigate during foraging excursions. The use of landmark information and a celestial system of reference for nest location was investigated by training desert ants returning from an artificial feeder to find the nest at one of four alternative positions located asymmetrically inside a four-cylinder landmark array. The cylindrical landmarks were all of the same size and arranged in a square, with the nest located in the southeast corner. When released from the compass direction experienced during training (southeast), the ants searched most intensely at the fictive nest position. When instead released from any of the three alternative directions of approach (southwest, northwest or northeast), the same individuals instead searched at two of the four alternative positions by initiating their search at the position closest to the direction of approach when entering the landmark square and then returning to the position at which snapshot, current landmark image and celestial reference information were in register. The results show that, in the ants'visual snapshot memory, a memorized landmark scene can temporarily be decoupled from a memorized celestial system of reference.

scholarly journals The guidance of desert ants by extended landmarks

2001 ◽  
Vol 204 (9) ◽  
pp. 1635-1639 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.S. Collett ◽  
M. Collett ◽  
R. Wehner
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
The State ◽  
Visual Scene ◽  
Visual Features ◽  
Test Field ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Integration System ◽  
Compass Direction ◽  
Desert Ants ◽  
Cataglyphis Fortis

Desert ants (Cataglyphis fortis) were trained to follow a fixed route around a barrier to a feeder. Their homeward trajectories were recorded on a test field containing a similar barrier, oriented either as in training or rotated through 22 or 45. Under one set of experimental conditions, the homeward trajectories rotated with the orientation of the barrier, implying that the visual features of this extended landmark can determine the route independently of compass cues: the barrier provided a “visual scene” that controlled the trajectories of the ants. Under other conditions, the trajectories after rotation were a compromise between the habitual compass direction and the direction with respect to the rotated barrier. Trajectories were determined primarily by the visual scene when ants were allowed to return close to the nest before being caught and tested. The compromise trajectories were observed when ants were taken from the feeder. It seems that ants exhibit at least two separate learnt responses to the barrier: (i) a habitual compass direction triggered by the sight of the barrier and (ii) a visual scene direction that is compass-independent. We suggest that the weighting accorded to these different learnt responses changes with the state of the path integration system.

scholarly journals Path Integration Provides a Scaffold for Landmark Learning in Desert Ants

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (15) ◽  
pp. 1368-1371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Müller ◽  
Rüdiger Wehner
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Desert Ants ◽  
Landmark Learning

scholarly journals Smells like home: Desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, use olfactory landmarks to pinpoint the nest

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathrin Steck ◽  
Bill S Hansson ◽  
Markus Knaden
Keyword(s):  
Desert Ants ◽  
Cataglyphis Fortis

scholarly journals Ontogeny of learning walks and the acquisition of landmark information in desert ants,Cataglyphis fortis

2016 ◽  
Vol 219 (19) ◽  
pp. 3137-3145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline N. Fleischmann ◽  
Marcelo Christian ◽  
Valentin L. Müller ◽  
Wolfgang Rössler ◽  
Rüdiger Wehner
Keyword(s):  
Desert Ants ◽  
Learning Walks ◽  
Cataglyphis Fortis

Homing distance in desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, remains unaffected by disturbance of walking behaviour and visual input

2013 ◽  
Vol 107 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 130-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Wittlinger ◽  
Harald Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Visual Input ◽  
Desert Ants ◽  
Cataglyphis Fortis
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