Innate turning preference of leaf-cutting ants in the absence of external orientation cues
Innate turning preference of leaf-cutting ants in the absence of external orientation cues
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DOI：
10.1242/jeb.177006
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发表时间：
2018-07-01
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
Sitti, Metin
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Endlein, Thomas;Sitti, Metin
大多数蚂蚁使用一系列的线索来确定方向，但是当所有的外部线索都被抑制时，蚂蚁是如何找到方向的呢？它们是随机行走还是空间定向的？在这里，我们第一次表明，切叶蚁（Acromyrmex lundii）有一个先天的偏好逆时针（左）时，外部线索被排除。我们通过让单个蚂蚁在新开发的跑步机的水面上自由奔跑来证明这一点。表面张力支持中等大小的工人，但有效地防止蚂蚁到达墙壁的船只，这是重要的，以避免墙以下的行为（趋触性）。大多数蚂蚁在原地奔跑了几分钟，但在没有视觉线索的情况下也会慢慢地逆时针转动。重建的有效路径走揭示了一个循环模式，可以解释为一种搜索策略。在对称的Y型迷宫中，在没有光学线索的情况下，有两倍多的蚂蚁选择了左侧分支，这也显示出类似的转向偏向。通过在Y型叉之前插入盘管来测试壁跟随行为。当蚂蚁穿过左边的盘管时，更多的蚂蚁选择左边的盒子，反之亦然。在跑步机外或Y迷宫的一个分支上添加垂直黑色条带形式的视觉线索，导致朝向条带的定向行走。有人建议，这两个转向偏置和墙壁以下的搜索策略，为一个未知的环境，可以被视觉线索覆盖。
Most ants use a combination of cues for orientation but how do ants find their way when all external cues are suppressed? Do they walk in a random way or are their movements spatially oriented? Here, we show for the first time that leaf-cutting ants (Acromyrmex lundii) have an innate preference for turning counter-clockwise (left) when external cues are precluded. We demonstrated this by allowing individual ants to run freely on the water surface of a newly developed treadmill. The surface tension supported medium-sized workers but effectively prevented ants from reaching the wall of the vessel, which was important to avoid wall-following behaviour (thigmotaxis). Most ants ran for minutes on the spot but also slowly turned counter-clockwise in the absence of visual cues. Reconstructing the effective path walked revealed a looping pattern which could be interpreted as a search strategy. A similar turning bias was shown for groups of ants in a symmetrical Y-maze where twice as many ants chose the left branch in the absence of optical cues. Wall-following behaviour was tested by inserting a coiled tube before the Y-fork. When ants traversed a left-coiled tube, more ants chose the left box and vice versa. Adding visual cues in the form of vertical black strips either outside the treadmill or on one branch of the Y-maze led to oriented walks towards the strips. It is suggested that both turning bias and wall following are employed as search strategies for an unknown environment which can be overridden by visual cues.