Homing strategies of the Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti I. Proportional path-integration takes the ant half-way home

Even after years of research on navigation in the Red Honey Ant,Melophorus bagoti, much of its life history remains elusive. Here, we present observations on nest relocation and the reproductive and founding stages of colonies. Nest relocation is possibly aided by trail laying behaviour, which is highly unusual for solitary foraging desert ants. Reproduction occurs in synchronised mating flights, which are probably triggered by rain. Queens may engage in multiple matings, and there is circumstantial evidence that males are chemically attracted to queens. After the mating flight, the queens found new colonies independently and singly. Excavation of these founding colonies reveals first insights into their structure.

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Foraging ecology of the thermophilic Australian desert ant, Melophorus bagoti

Australian Journal of Zoology ◽

10.1071/zo05023 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 53 (5) ◽

pp. 301 ◽

Cited By ~ 60

Author(s):

Barbara Muser ◽

Stefan Sommer ◽

Harald Wolf ◽

Rüdiger Wehner

Keyword(s):

Foraging Ecology ◽

Soil Surface ◽

Foraging Efficiency ◽

Foraging Activity ◽

Foraging Success ◽

Success Rates ◽

Desert Ant ◽

Foraging Site ◽

Intercolony Aggression ◽

Melophorus Bagoti

The paper describes the foraging ecology of the Australian desert ant, Melophorus bagoti, a thermophilic, diurnal scavenger with ground-nesting colonies. Overlapping foraging ranges, low foraging success rates, and intercolony aggression suggest intense competition for food between colonies. Daily foraging starts when soil surface temperatures approach 50°C. Workers search individually and collect predominantly dead insects. Occasionally, they consume plant secretions. Foraging activity peaks on mid-summer days. On cloudy days the onset of foraging is delayed, and the foraging activity is low. Ants do not forage on rainy days. Typically, workers start their above-ground activities with a few short exploration runs. On average, they perform one foraging run on the first day of their outdoor lives. With age they gradually increase foraging site fidelity and daily foraging effort. Individual foraging efficiency is low at the beginning but grows with experience. However, due to a high mortality rate and, hence, high forager turnover, average rates of foraging success for a colony remain rather low. The outdoor activity gradually decreases towards the end of summer and appears to stop completely during the winter months.

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Multiple sources of celestial compass information in the Central Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti

Journal of Comparative Physiology A ◽

10.1007/s00359-014-0899-x ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 200 (6) ◽

pp. 591-601 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Antoine Wystrach ◽

Sebastian Schwarz ◽

Patrick Schultheiss ◽

Alice Baniel ◽

Ken Cheng

Keyword(s):

Multiple Sources ◽

Desert Ant ◽

Celestial Compass ◽

Melophorus Bagoti

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Learning, retention and coding of nest-associated visual cues by the Australian desert ant, Melophorus bagoti

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology ◽

10.1007/s00265-007-0386-2 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 61 (10) ◽

pp. 1543-1553 ◽

Cited By ~ 49

Author(s):

Ajay Narendra ◽

Aung Si ◽

Danielle Sulikowski ◽

Ken Cheng

Keyword(s):

Visual Cues ◽

Learning Retention ◽

Desert Ant ◽

Melophorus Bagoti

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

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2013.0070 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 20130070 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

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.

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INFORMATION ACQUISITION IN DESERT ANT NAVIGATION

International Journal of Information Acquisition ◽

10.1142/s0219878906000800 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 03 (01) ◽

pp. 33-43 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

JUN GAO ◽

LEI WANG ◽

MEI BO ◽

ZHIGUO FAN

Keyword(s):

Body Length ◽

Information Acquisition ◽

Path Integration ◽

Research Work ◽

Polarized Light ◽

Visual Navigation ◽

Desert Ant ◽

Navigation Path ◽

Straight Line ◽

Ant Navigation

Desert ant (Cataglyphis) is famous for its ability in navigation. In deserts with very few visual and odor information, the ant can return to its den almost along a straight line after foraging away in a distance of much more than thousands of times longer than its body length. Several kinds of information must be acquired during its trip, and the most important two are: path integration and visual navigation. Path integration is achieved by using sky light compass based on polarized light and odometer, while visual navigation relies on landmark based memory and matching. In this paper, a survey of research work on desert ant navigation from the viewpoint of information acquisition and fusion is presented, as well as the application of these kinds of information to navigate robots, especially bionic robots cruising in strange environment.

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Learning and time-dependent cue choice in the desert ant, Melophorus bagoti

Ethology ◽

10.1111/eth.12626 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 123 (8) ◽

pp. 503-515 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Cody A. Freas ◽

Ken Cheng

Keyword(s):

Time Dependent ◽

Desert Ant ◽

Melophorus Bagoti

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