Ant foraging on complex trails: route learning and the role of trail pheromones in Lasius niger
Ant foraging on complex trails: route learning and the role of trail pheromones in Lasius niger
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DOI：
10.1242/jeb.076570
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发表时间：
2013-01-01
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
Ratnieks, Francis L. W.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Czaczkes, Tomer J.;Grueter, Christoph;Ratnieks, Francis L. W.
蚂蚁是中央觅食者，使用多种信息源在巢穴和觅食地点之间导航。个体蚂蚁快速学习路线，并且在具有单个分叉的简单路径上测试时，通常优先考虑记忆而不是信息素路径。然而，在自然界中，蚂蚁经常在通过具有多个路径分叉的更复杂的路线到达的位置觅食。这样的路线可能更难学习，因此蚂蚁将受益于额外的信息。我们假设，线索信息素发挥更重要的作用，蚂蚁觅食复杂的路线，无论是通过协助导航或路线学习或两者兼而有之。我们研究了尼日尔工人觅食的双分叉线索与四个端点。路线学习速度较慢，交替（例如左-右）与重复路线（例如左-左）的错误更大，错误率分别为32%和3%。然而，交替路线的错误减少了30%，当trail信息素。路径信息素也有助于路线学习，从而减少后续旅程中没有信息素的错误。如果一个有经验的觅食者在返回食物来源时犯了错误，它的反应是在回程中增加信息素的沉积。此外，高水平的尾随信息素抑制进一步的信息素沉积。这种负反馈机制可能起到保存信息素或调节募集的作用。两者合计，这些结果表明进一步的复杂性和复杂性，在觅食系统的蚁群，特别是在线索信息素的作用和它们的关系，学习和使用的私人信息（记忆）在复杂的环境中。
Ants are central place foragers and use multiple information sources to navigate between the nest and feeding sites. Individual ants rapidly learn a route, and often prioritize memory over pheromone trails when tested on a simple trail with a single bifurcation. However, in nature, ants often forage at locations that are reached via more complex routes with multiple trail bifurcations. Such routes may be more difficult to learn, and thus ants would benefit from additional information. We hypothesized that trail pheromones play a more significant role in ant foraging on complex routes, either by assisting in navigation or route learning or both. We studied Laslus niger workers foraging on a doubly bifurcating trail with four end points. Route learning was slower and errors greater on alternating (e.g. left-right) versus repeating routes (e.g. left-left), with error rates of 32 and 3%, respectively. However, errors on alternating routes decreased by 30% when trail pheromone was present. Trail pheromones also aid route learning, leading to reduced errors in subsequent journeys without pheromone. If an experienced forager makes an error when returning to a food source, it reacts by increasing pheromone deposition on the return journey. In addition, high levels of trail pheromone suppress further pheromone deposition. This negative feedback mechanism may act to conserve pheromone or to regulate recruitment. Taken together, these results demonstrate further complexity and sophistication in the foraging system of ant colonies, especially in the role of trail pheromones and their relationship with learning and the use of private information (memory) in a complex environment.