Insect navigation: do ants live in the now?

Graham, Paul; Mangan, Michael

doi:10.1242/jeb.065409

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…In other words, the insect navigates back by choosing a 60 direction that maximizes "familiarity." The hypothesis appears congruent with 61 numerous behavioral observations [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. Furthermore, there are now robots and 62 simulated agents that navigate autonomously via familiarity [1,18,[37][38][39], and some 63 studies [40, 41] have suggested how neural tissue, such as the central complex and 64 mushroom bodies [42-51], might be organized to accommodate familiarity-based 65 navigation.…”

supporting

confidence: 56%

High-throughput simulations indicate feasibility of navigation by familiarity with a local sensor such as scorpion pectines

Musaelian

Gaffin

2020

Preprint

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Scorpions have arguably the most elaborate "tongues" on the planet: two paired ventral combs, called pectines, that are covered in thousands of chemo-tactile peg sensilla and that sweep the ground as the animal walks. Males use their pectines to detect female pheromones during the mating season, but females have pectines too: What additional purpose must the pectines serve? Why are there so many pegs? We take a computational approach to test the hypothesis that scorpions use their pectines to navigate by chemo-textural familiarity in a manner analogous to the visual navigation-by-scene-familiarity hypothesis for hymenopteran insects. We have developed a general model of navigation by familiarity with a local sensor and have chosen a range of plausible parameters for it based on the existing behavioral, physiological, morphological, and neurological understanding of the pectines. Similarly, we constructed virtual environments based on the scorpion's native sand habitat. Using a novel methodology of highly parallel high-throughput simulations, we comprehensively tested 2160 combinations of sensory and environmental properties in each of 24 different situations, giving a total of 51,840 trials. Our results show that navigation by familiarity with a local pectine-like sensor is feasible. Further, they suggest a subtle interplay between "complexity" and "continuity" in navigation by familiarity and give June 10, 2020 1/34 the surprising result that more complexity -more detail and more information -is not always better for navigational performance. Author summaryScorpions' pectines are intricate taste-and-touch sensory appendages that brush the ground as the animal walks. Pectines are involved in detecting pheromones, but their exquisite complexity -a pair of pectines can have around 100,000 sensory neuronssuggests that they do more. One hypothesis is "Navigation by Scene Familiarity," which explains how bees and ants use their compound eyes to navigate home: the insect visually scans side to side as it moves, compares what it sees to scenes learned along a training path, and moves in the direction that looks most familiar. We propose that the scorpions' pectines can be used to navigate similarly: instead of looking around, they sweep side to side sensing local chemical and textural information. We crafted simulated scorpions based on current understanding of the pectines and tested their navigational performance in virtual versions of the animals' sandy habitat. Using a supercomputer, we varied nine environmental, sensory, and situational properties and ran a total of 51,840 trials of simulated navigation. We showed that navigation by familiarity with a local sensor like the pectines is feasible. Surprisingly, we also found that having a more detailed landscape and/or a more sensitive sensor is not always optimal.Introduction 1 Scorpions present at least two unanswered scientific mysteries: the selection pressure 2 that maintains their pectines -two ornate, sensitive, and energetically expensive 3 sensory organs on t...

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supporting

confidence: 56%

High-throughput simulations indicate feasibility of navigation by familiarity with a local sensor such as scorpion pectines

Musaelian

Gaffin

2020

Preprint

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“…3a). Experiments show that it is the recent experience of the visual surroundings near the nest that leads to this backtracking behaviour Graham and Mangan 2015). In summary, we see adaptive interactions between navigational strategies and the nature of these interactions depends on the animals' sensory ecology as well as individual experience.…”

Section: How Sensory Ecology Drives the Balance Of Cue Usementioning

confidence: 81%

Multimodal interactions in insect navigation

2020

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Animals travelling through the world receive input from multiple sensory modalities that could be important for the guidance of their journeys. Given the availability of a rich array of cues, from idiothetic information to input from sky compasses and visual information through to olfactory and other cues (e.g. gustatory, magnetic, anemotactic or thermal) it is no surprise to see multimodality in most aspects of navigation. In this review, we present the current knowledge of multimodal cue use during orientation and navigation in insects. Multimodal cue use is adapted to a species' sensory ecology and shapes navigation behaviour both during the learning of environmental cues and when performing complex foraging journeys. The simultaneous use of multiple cues is beneficial because it provides redundant navigational information, and in general, multimodality increases robustness, accuracy and overall foraging success. We use examples from sensorimotor behaviours in mosquitoes and flies as well as from large scale navigation in ants, bees and insects that migrate seasonally over large distances, asking at each stage how multiple cues are combined behaviourally and what insects gain from using different modalities.Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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“…Collett (2014) then rewound the ants, now with their PI vector indicating zero, just once. Interestingly, some ants appeared confused for a prolonged period before eventually commencing their regular route, suggesting that a single unsuccessful event reduces the trust that ants have in their visually defined direction (Graham and Mangan 2015).…”

Section: Rewinding To Reveal Intricacies Of Running Routes Without Sumentioning

confidence: 99%

Running paths to nowhere: repetition of routes shows how navigating ants modulate online the weights accorded to cues

et al. 2019

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Insect navigation: do ants live in the now?

Cited by 16 publications

References 31 publications

High-throughput simulations indicate feasibility of navigation by familiarity with a local sensor such as scorpion pectines

High-throughput simulations indicate feasibility of navigation by familiarity with a local sensor such as scorpion pectines

Multimodal interactions in insect navigation

Running paths to nowhere: repetition of routes shows how navigating ants modulate online the weights accorded to cues

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