Vector-based and landmark-guided navigation in desert ants inhabiting landmark-free and landmark-rich environments
Vector-based and landmark-guided navigation in desert ants inhabiting landmark-free and landmark-rich environments
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DOI：
10.1242/jeb.054601
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发表时间：
2011-09-01
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
Wehner, Ruediger
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Buehlmann, Cornelia;Cheng, Ken;Wehner, Ruediger
两种沙漠蚂蚁--北非的Cataglyphis fortis和澳大利亚中部的Meloporus bagoti --在自然栖息地的视觉复杂性上有着明显的不同：分别是毫无特色的盐田和杂乱的草原状地形。在这里，我们问这两个物种是否在他们的导航剧目不同，特别是，是否在归巢他们把不同的重点放在他们的矢量为基础的和地标为基础的例程。在试图回答这个问题时，我们将相同的实验范式应用于两个大陆上任何物种的个体觅食者：使用和/或不使用人工地标阵列进行训练和/或测试。我们发现开阔地种C. fortis甚至在不熟悉的地标环境中也比复杂地形物种M更容易跑离它的（路径整合）家矢量。bagoti。这些数据支持了C. fortis具有更高的倾向于依赖于载体介导的导航，而在相同的实验情况下M。bagoti更容易切换到地标引导的行为。在实际的航行行为中，这种物种特异性倾向很可能是由环境依赖的个体经验形成的。
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.