scholarly journals Learning to navigate – how desert ants calibrate their compass systems

Neuroforum ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Grob ◽  
Pauline N. Fleischmann ◽  
Wolfgang Rössler
Keyword(s):  
Neuronal Plasticity ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Visual Pathways ◽  
Harsh Environments ◽  
Desert Ants ◽  
Synaptic Circuits ◽  
Bright Sunlight ◽  
Learning Walks ◽  
Navigational Systems

Abstract Navigating through the environment is a challenging task that animals cope with on a daily basis. Many animal species have impressive capabilities to navigate in complex or even harsh environments. Cataglyphis desert ants are a famous example. These ants use a remarkable navigational repertoire to find their way home after far-reaching foraging trips. How do naïve ants calibrate their visual navigational systems? The ants perform stereotyped sequences of learning walks before switching from tasks inside the darkness of their nest, to foraging under bright sunlight. Here, naïve ants align nest-directed views using the earth’s magnetic field as a compass reference. Neuronal plasticity was mapped in two visual pathways to higher brain centers during this transition. Both their first exposure to light, and the performance of learning walks lead to distinct changes in synaptic circuits along both visual pathways, reflecting calibration and memory formation in the ants’ visual compass systems.

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

scholarly journals Multimodal influences on learning walks in desert ants (Cataglyphis fortis)

2020 ◽  
Vol 206 (5) ◽  
pp. 701-709
Author(s):  
Jose Adrian Vega Vermehren ◽  
Cornelia Buehlmann ◽  
Ana Sofia David Fernandes ◽  
Paul Graham
Keyword(s):  
Desert Ants ◽  
Learning Walks ◽  
Cataglyphis Fortis

scholarly journals Learning walks in an Australian desert ant, Melophorus bagoti

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sudhakar Deeti ◽  
Ken Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Visual Landmark ◽  
Desert Ants ◽  
Desert Ant ◽  
Learning Walks ◽  
Stopping Phases ◽  
Melophorus Bagoti ◽  
Learning Walk

The Central Australian ant Melophorus bagoti is the most thermophilic ant in Australia and forages solitarily in the summer months during the hottest period of the day. For successful navigation, desert ants of many species are known to integrate a path and learn landmark cues around the nest. Ants perform a series of exploratory walks around the nest before their first foraging trip, during which they are presumed to learn about their landmark panorama. Here, we studied 15 naïve M. bagoti ants transitioning from indoor work to foraging outside the nest. In three to four consecutive days, they performed 3 to 7 exploratory walks before heading off to forage. Naïve ants increased the area of exploration around the nest and the duration of trips over successive learning walks. In their first foraging walk, the majority of the ants followed a direction explored on their last learning walk. During learning walks, the ants stopped and performed stereotypical orientation behaviours called pirouettes. They performed complete body rotations with stopping phases as well as small circular walks without stops known as voltes. After just one learning walk, these desert ants could head in the home direction from locations 2 m from the nest, although not from locations 4 m from the nest. These results suggest gradual learning of the visual landmark panorama around the foragers’ nest. Our observations show that M. bagoti exhibit similar characteristics in their learning walks as other desert ants of the genera Ocymyrmex and Cataglyphis.

scholarly journals A rather dry subject; investigating the study of arid-associated microbial communities

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Osborne ◽  
Lindsay J. Hall ◽  
Noga Kronfeld-Schor ◽  
David Thybert ◽  
Wilfried Haerty
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Arid Environment ◽  
Harsh Environments ◽  
Arid Environments ◽  
Microbial Life ◽  
Microbial Ecosystems ◽  
Limited Food ◽  
Extremes Of Temperature

AbstractAlmost one third of Earth’s land surface is arid, with deserts alone covering more than 46 million square kilometres. Nearly 2.1 billion people inhabit deserts or drylands and these regions are also home to a great diversity of plant and animal species including many that are unique to them. Aridity is a multifaceted environmental stress combining a lack of water with limited food availability and typically extremes of temperature, impacting animal species across the planet from polar cold valleys, to Andean deserts and the Sahara. These harsh environments are also home to diverse microbial communities, demonstrating the ability of bacteria, fungi and archaea to settle and live in some of the toughest locations known. We now understand that these microbial ecosystems i.e. microbiotas, the sum total of microbial life across and within an environment, interact across both the environment, and the macroscopic organisms residing in these arid environments. Although multiple studies have explored these microbial communities in different arid environments, few studies have examined the microbiota of animals which are themselves arid-adapted. Here we aim to review the interactions between arid environments and the microbial communities which inhabit them, covering hot and cold deserts, the challenges these environments pose and some issues arising from limitations in the field. We also consider the work carried out on arid-adapted animal microbiotas, to investigate if any shared patterns or trends exist, whether between organisms or between the animals and the wider arid environment microbial communities. We determine if there are any patterns across studies potentially demonstrating a general impact of aridity on animal-associated microbiomes or benefits from aridity-adapted microbiomes for animals. In the context of increasing desertification and climate change it is important to understand the connections between the three pillars of microbiome, host genome and environment.

scholarly journals Magnetoreception in Hymenoptera: importance for navigation

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 1051-1061 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline N. Fleischmann ◽  
Robin Grob ◽  
Wolfgang Rössler
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Models ◽  
Integrative Approach ◽  
Animal Kingdom ◽  
Desert Ants ◽  
Navigational Cues ◽  
Initial Learning ◽  
Magnetic Sense ◽  
Learning Walks ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractThe use of information provided by the geomagnetic field (GMF) for navigation is widespread across the animal kingdom. At the same time, the magnetic sense is one of the least understood senses. Here, we review evidence for magnetoreception in Hymenoptera. We focus on experiments aiming to shed light on the role of the GMF for navigation. Both honeybees and desert ants are well-studied experimental models for navigation, and both use the GMF for specific navigational tasks under certain conditions. Cataglyphis desert ants use the GMF as a compass cue for path integration during their initial learning walks to align their gaze directions towards the nest entrance. This represents the first example for the use of the GMF in an insect species for a genuine navigational task under natural conditions and with all other navigational cues available. We argue that the recently described magnetic compass in Cataglyphis opens up a new integrative approach to understand the mechanisms underlying magnetoreception in Hymenoptera on different biological levels.

Author response for "Perceptual rivalry across animal species"

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Carter ◽  
Bruno Swinderen ◽  
David Leopold ◽  
Shaun Collin ◽  
Alex Maier
Keyword(s):  
Animal Species ◽  
Author Response ◽  
Perceptual Rivalry

Anchoring Fibrils in Arterial Endothelium

1969 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 274-275
Author(s):  
A. Trillo
Keyword(s):  
Carotid Arteries ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Cell Layer ◽  
Present Communication ◽  
Internal Elastic Lamina ◽  
Endothelial Cell Layer ◽  
Structural Details ◽  
Rats And Mice ◽  
Arterial Endothelium ◽  
Elastic Lamina

There are conflicting reports regarding some fine structural details of arteries from several animal species. Buck denied the existence of a sub-endothelial space, while Karrer and Keech described a space of variable width which separates the endothelium from the underlying internal elastic lamina in aortas of aging rats and mice respectively.The present communication deals with the ultrastrueture of the interface between the endothelial cell layer and the internal elastic lamina as observed in carotid arteries from rabbits of varying ages.

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