Buehlmann, Cornelia, Cheng, Ken and Wehner, Ruediger (2011) Vector-based and landmark-guided navigation in desert ants inhabiting landmark-free and landmark-rich environments. Journal of Experimental Biology, 214 (17). pp. 2845-2853. ISSN 1477-9145

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Abstract

Two species of desert ants – the North African Cataglyphis fortis and the central Australian Melophorus bagoti – differ markedly in the visual complexity of their natural habitats: featureless salt pans and cluttered, steppe-like terrain, respectively. Here we ask whether the two species differ in their navigational repertoires, in particular, whether in homing they place different emphasis on their vector-based and landmark-based routines. In trying to answer this question, we applied the same experimental paradigms to individual foragers of either species on either continent: training and/or testing with and/or without artificial landmark arrays. We found that the open-terrain species C. fortis runs off its (path integration) home vector much more readily even in unfamiliar landmark settings than the cluttered-terrain species M. bagoti. These data support the hypothesis that C. fortis has a higher propensity to rely on vector-mediated navigation, whereas in the same experimental situations M. bagoti more easily switches to landmark-guided behaviour. In the actual navigational performances, such species-specific propensities are most likely shaped by environment-dependent individual experiences.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Life Sciences > Evolution, Behaviour and Environment
Research Centres and Groups:	Insect Navigation Research Group
Depositing User:	Cornelia Buehlmann
Date Deposited:	16 Oct 2017 08:24
Last Modified:	16 Oct 2017 08:24
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/70523

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