The ant’s celestial compass system: spectral and polarization channels
The ant’s celestial compass system: spectral and polarization channels
复制标题
蚂蚁的天文罗盘系统：光谱和偏振通道
DOI：
10.1007/978-3-0348-8878-3_6
复制
发表时间：
1997
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
R. Wehner
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
R. Wehner
蚂蚁和蜜蜂一样，不仅从太阳的直射光中，而且从天空中的散射光中获得指南针信息。在本报告中，后一种现象是描述沙漠蚂蚁，属Cataglyphis。由于地球大气层中的空气分子对太阳光的散射，偏振、光谱组成和辐射强度的空间梯度在整个天球上延伸。所有这些光学现象都被Cataglyphis navigator所利用。在这里，我专注于使用Cataglyphis使偏振和光谱天光梯度。任何一种类型的信息都是由一个单独的感觉通道进行神经处理的，该通道从视网膜的一个单独的部分接收其输入。这些渠道的特点和他们可能的相互作用进行了分析，在各种行为实验中，蚂蚁，其复眼部分被遮光帽遮挡，提出了空间限制和光谱改变的部分天体半球。讨论了天窗图案是否被昆虫导航仪简单地用于读取参考方向（例如，太阳子午线的方位角位置），或者它们是否用于确定罗盘的任何特定点。不同的方法来研究这些问题-行为和神经生理分析，计算机模拟和机器人技术-进行了描述，并报告了这些方法所获得的结果。在图2（下半部分）和图3中呈现了描绘真实的天空中偏振光图案的新方法，图22介绍了通过偏振天窗导航的自主代理。从概念上讲，本章的最后一段提供了我从昆虫的天空罗盘分析中得出的最一般的结论。
Ants as well as bees derive compass information not only from the direct light of the sun, but also from the scattered light in the sky. In the present account, the latter phenomenon is described for desert ants, genus Cataglyphis. Due to the scattering of sunlight by the air molecules of the earth’s atmosphere, spatial gradients of polarization, spectral composition and radiant intensity extend across the celestial hemisphere. All of these optical phenomena are exploited by the Cataglyphis navigator. Here I concentrate on the use Cataglyphis makes of the polarization and spectral skylight gradients. Either type of information is neurally processed by a separate sensory channel receiving its input from a separate part of the retina. These channels are characterized and their possible interactions are analyzed in a variety of behavioural experiments, in which ants, whose compound eyes are partially occluded by light-tight caps, are presented with spatially restricted and spectrally altered parts of the celestial hemisphere. It is discussed whether skylight patterns are used by the insect navigator simply to read a reference direction (e.g., the azimuthal position of the solar meridian) from the sky, or whether they are used to determine any particular point of the compass. Different approaches to examine these questions - behavioural and neuro-physiological analyses, computer simulations and robotics - are described, and results obtained by these approaches are reported. New ways of portraying the pattern of polarized light in the real sky are presented in Figures 2 (lower part) and 3, and Figure 22 introduces an autonomous agent navigating by polarized skylight. Conceptually, the last paragraph of this chapter provides my most general conclusions drawn from the analyses of the insect’s skylight compass.
DOI：
10.1159/000116575
发表时间：
1988
期刊：
Brain, behavior and evolution
影响因子：
--
作者：
Sparks,DL
通讯作者：
Sparks,DL