scholarly journals Pheromone cue triggers switch between vectors in the desert harvest ant, Veromessor pergandei

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cody A Freas ◽  
Marcia L Spetch ◽  
Jenna Congdon
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Trail Pheromone ◽  
Column Vector ◽  
Vector System ◽  
Distance Estimate ◽  
Harvester Ant ◽  
Veromessor Pergandei ◽  
Spatial Locations ◽  
Potential Use

The desert harvester ant (Veromessor pergandei) employs a mixture of social and individual navigational strategies at separate stages of their foraging trip. Individuals leave the nest along a pheromone-based column, travelling 3-40m before spreading out to forage individually in a fan. Foragers use path integration while in this fan, accumulating a direction and distance estimate (vector) to return to the end of the column (column head), yet foragers’ potential use of path integration in the pheromone-based column is less understood. Here we show foragers rely on path integration both in the foraging fan as well as while in the column to return to the nest, using separate vectors depending on their current foraging stage in the fan or column. Returning foragers displaced while in the fan oriented and travelled to the column head location while those displaced after reaching the column travel in the nest direction, signifying the maintenance of a two-vector system with separate fan and column vectors directing a forager to two separate spatial locations. Interestingly, the trail pheromone and not the surrounding terrestrial cues mediate use of these distinct vectors, as fan foragers briefly exposed to the pheromone cues of the column in isolation altered their paths to a combination of the fan and column vectors. The pheromone cue acts as a contextual cue triggering both the retrieval of the column vector memory and its integration with the forager’s current fan vector.

scholarly journals The non-additive effects of body size on nest architecture in a polymorphic ant

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1753) ◽  
pp. 20170235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina L. Kwapich ◽  
Gabriele Valentini ◽  
Bert Hölldobler
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Synergistic Effects ◽  
Mating Frequency ◽  
Nest Architecture ◽  
Harvester Ant ◽  
Insect Societies ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches ◽  
Size Groups ◽  
Veromessor Pergandei ◽  
Colony Level

Like traditional organisms, eusocial insect societies express traits that are the target of natural selection. Variation at the colony level emerges from the combined attributes of thousands of workers and may yield characteristics not predicted from individual phenotypes. By manipulating the ratios of worker types, the basis of complex, colony-level traits can be reduced to the additive and non-additive interactions of their component parts. In this study, we investigated the independent and synergistic effects of body size on nest architecture in a seasonally polymorphic harvester ant, Veromessor pergandei . Using network analysis, we compared wax casts of nests, and found that mixed-size groups built longer nests, excavated more sand and produced greater architectural complexity than single-sized worker groups. The nests built by polymorphic groups were not only larger in absolute terms, but larger than expected based on the combined contributions of both size classes in isolation. In effect, the interactions of different worker types yielded a colony-level trait that was not predicted from the sum of its parts. In nature, V. pergandei colonies with fewer fathers produce smaller workers each summer, and produce more workers annually. Because body size is linked to multiple colony-level traits, our findings demonstrate how selection acting on one characteristic, like mating frequency, could also shape unrelated characteristics, like nest architecture. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Interdisciplinary approaches for uncovering the impacts of architecture on collective behaviour'.

The growth of mica polytypes as studied by conventional and high-resolution TEM

1983 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 174-177
Author(s):  
A. Baronnet ◽  
M. Amouric
Keyword(s):  
Water Pressure ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Temperature Fields ◽  
Natural Occurrence ◽  
Growth Mechanisms ◽  
Long Period ◽  
High Resolution Tem ◽  
Layer Stacking ◽  
Experimental Works ◽  
Potential Use

The origin of mica polytypes has long been a challenging problem for crystal- lographers, mineralogists and petrologists. From the petrological point of view, interest in this field arose from the potential use of layer stacking data to furnish further informations about equilibrium and/or kinetic conditions prevailing during the crystallization of the widespread mica-bearing rocks. From the compilation of previous experimental works dealing with the occurrence domains of the various mica "polymorphs" (1Mr, 1M, 2M1, 2M2 and 3T) within water-pressure vs temperature fields, it became clear that most of these modifications should be considered as metastable for a fixed mica species. Furthermore, the natural occurrence of long-period (or complex) polytypes could not be accounted for by phase considerations. This highlighted the need of a more detailed kinetic approach of the problem and, in particular, of the role growth mechanisms of basal faces could play in this crystallographic phenomenon.

An atomic-resolution microscope study of Al contracts on GaAs

1986 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 726-727
Author(s):  
Z. Liliental-Weber ◽  
C. Nelson ◽  
R. Ludeke ◽  
R. Gronsky ◽  
J. Washburn
Keyword(s):  
High Speed ◽  
Schottky Contacts ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
The Past ◽  
Semiconductor Interfaces ◽  
Deposited Metal ◽  
Microwave Applications ◽  
Free Interfaces ◽  
Potential Use

The properties of metal/semiconductor interfaces have received considerable attention over the past few years, and the Al/GaAs system is of special interest because of its potential use in high-speed logic integrated optics, and microwave applications. For such materials a detailed knowledge of the geometric and electronic structure of the interface is fundamental to an understanding of the electrical properties of the contact. It is well known that the properties of Schottky contacts are established within a few atomic layers of the deposited metal. Therefore surface contamination can play a significant role. A method for fabricating contamination-free interfaces is absolutely necessary for reproducible properties, and molecularbeam epitaxy (MBE) offers such advantages for in-situ metal deposition under UHV conditions

Dynamic Visual Noise Affects Visual Short-Term Memory for Surface Color, but not Spatial Location

2010 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Dent
Keyword(s):  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Visual Noise ◽  
Dynamic Visual Noise ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Surface Color ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Visual Short Term Memory ◽  
Experimental Tool ◽  
Spatial Locations

In two experiments participants retained a single color or a set of four spatial locations in memory. During a 5 s retention interval participants viewed either flickering dynamic visual noise or a static matrix pattern. In Experiment 1 memory was assessed using a recognition procedure, in which participants indicated if a particular test stimulus matched the memorized stimulus or not. In Experiment 2 participants attempted to either reproduce the locations or they picked the color from a whole range of possibilities. Both experiments revealed effects of dynamic visual noise (DVN) on memory for colors but not for locations. The implications of the results for theories of working memory and the methodological prospects for DVN as an experimental tool are discussed.

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