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The Journal of Experimental Biology 205, 1971-1978 (2002)
© 2002 The Company of Biologists Limited

Visual navigation in desert ants Cataglyphis fortis: are snapshots coupled to a celestial system of reference?

Susanne Åkesson* and Rüdiger Wehner{dagger}

Department of Zoology, Zürich University, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland

* Author for correspondence and present address: Department of Animal Ecology, Lund University, Ecology Building, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden (e-mail: Susanne.Akesson{at}zooekol.lu.se )

{dagger}Please send reprint requests to rwehner{at}zool.unizh.ch

Accepted 23 April 2002

Central-place foraging insects such as desert ants of the genus Cataglyphis use both path integration and landmarks to navigate during foraging excursions. The use of landmark information and a celestial system of reference for nest location was investigated by training desert ants returning from an artificial feeder to find the nest at one of four alternative positions located asymmetrically inside a four-cylinder landmark array. The cylindrical landmarks were all of the same size and arranged in a square, with the nest located in the southeast corner. When released from the compass direction experienced during training (southeast), the ants searched most intensely at the fictive nest position. When instead released from any of the three alternative directions of approach (southwest, northwest or northeast), the same individuals instead searched at two of the four alternative positions by initiating their search at the position closest to the direction of approach when entering the landmark square and then returning to the position at which snapshot, current landmark image and celestial reference information were in register. The results show that, in the ants' visual snapshot memory, a memorized landmark scene can temporarily be decoupled from a memorized celestial system of reference.

Key words: navigation, visual navigation, landmark guidance, celestial reference system, learning, insect, ant, Cataglyphis fortis




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© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2002