Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/152386
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- Title
- Vector-based and landmark-guided navigation in desert ants inhabiting landmark-free and landmark-rich environments
- Related
- Journal of experimental biology, Vol. 214, No. 17, (2011), p.2845-2853
- DOI
- 10.1242/jeb.054601
- Publisher
- Company of Biologists
- Date
- 2011
- Author/Creator
- Bühlmann, Cornelia
- Author/Creator
- Cheng, Ken
- Author/Creator
- Wehner, Rüdiger
- Description
- 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.
- Description
- 9 page(s)
- Subject Keyword
- Cataglyphis fortis
- Subject Keyword
- Desert ant
- Subject Keyword
- Interspecific comparison
- Subject Keyword
- Landmark guidance
- Subject Keyword
- Melophorus bagoti
- Subject Keyword
- Path integration
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Organisation
- Macquarie University. Dept. of Biological Sciences
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/152386
- Identifier
- ISSN:0022-0949
- Identifier
- mq_res-ext-2-s2.0-80051709627
- Language
- eng
- Reviewed
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