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

Abstract

Ants are excellent navigators using multimodal information for navigation. To accurately localise the nest at the end of a foraging journey, visual cues, wind direction and also olfactory cues need to be learnt. Learning walks are performed at the start of an ant’s foraging career or when the appearance of the nest surrounding has changed. We investigated here whether the structure of such learning walks in the desert ant Cataglyphis fortis takes into account wind direction in conjunction with the learning of new visual information. Ants learnt to travel back and forth between their nest and a feeder, and we then introduced a black cylinder near their nest to induce learning walks in regular foragers. By doing this across days with different wind directions, we were able to probe how ants balance different sensory modalities. We found that (1) the ants’ outwards headings are influenced by the wind direction with their routes deflected such that they will arrive downwind of their target, (2) a novel object along the route induces learning walks in experienced ants and (3) the structure of learning walks is shaped by the wind direction rather than the position of the visual cue. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00359-020-01431-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Magnetosensation during re-learning walks in desert ants (Cataglyphis nodus)

“…Experienced ant foragers perform a conspicuous behavior—so-called re-learning walks (reLWs)—when the panorama around the nest entrance has been changed (Fleischmann et al 2016 ; Jayatilaka et al 2018 ; Müller and Wehner 2010 ; Narendra and Ramirez-Esquivel 2017 ; Vega Vermehren et al 2020 ; Zeil and Fleischmann 2019 ). Our results show that reLWs of experienced foragers can be clearly distinguished from initial learning walks (iLWs) of novices due to several characteristics.…”

“…Experienced Cataglyphis foragers usually leave the nest fast to search for food to then return to the nest following their so-called home vector (Müller and Wehner 1988 ). Ants perform re-learning walks (reLWs) after substantial portions of the panorama around the nest entrance have been changed ( Cataglyphis fortis : Fleischmann et al 2016 ; Vega Vermehren et al 2020 ; Ocymyrmex robustior : Müller and Wehner 2010 ; Myrmecia croslandi : Jayatilaka et al 2018 ; Myrmecia pyriformis : Narendra and Ramirez-Esquivel 2017 ; for a review: Zeil and Fleischmann 2019 ) or before they start to return to their nest after visiting a new feeder ( Formica rufa: Nicholson et al 1999 ). Cataglyphis ’ iLWs and reLWs show clear similarities and differences, but until now the structures of iLWs and of reLWs have never been compared systematically.…”

Decoding the dance parameters of eastern honeybee, Apis cerana

“…In path integration theory, the time compensation of celestial cues plays a vital role (Menzel et al 2000;De Marco and Menzel 2005;Collett 2019). Desert ants (Knaden 2020;Vega Vermehren et al 2020) and bees (Menzel 2012;Dovey et al 2013) produce food-home vectors during the forage-home process. These vectors are located in terrestrial coordinates rather than celestial coordinates, and the foragers adjust the celestial-derived orientation (time compensation) according to the horizontal position of the daytime sun to achieve food-home localization.…”

The Critical Role of Head Movements for Spatial Representation During Bumblebees Learning Flight

“…It would therefore be interesting to analyse whether the active vision strategies, pivoting or motion parallax, are present to a different extent when the visual surroundings are more complex. In addition to visual information, natural environments provide other sensory cues that could be relevant while pinpointing and learning the nest-hole (Buehlmann et al, 2020 ; Vega Vermehren et al, 2020 ). One possibility might be an odor plume emanating from the nest-hole, as described in ants using an odor vector in combination to path-integration (Buehlmann et al, 2012 ).…”