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First published online August 30, 2006
Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 3677-3684 (2006)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2006
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02414
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Bi-directional route learning in wood ants

Paul Graham and Thomas S. Collett*

School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QG, UK

* Author for correspondence (e-mail: T.S.Collett{at}Sussex.ac.uk)

Accepted 27 June 2006

Some ants and bees readily learn visually guided routes between their nests and feeding sites. They can learn the appearance of visual landmarks for the food-bound or homeward segment of the route when these landmarks are only present during that particular segment of their round trip. We show here that wood ants can also acquire landmark information for guiding their homeward path while running their food-bound path, and that this information may be picked up, when ants briefly reverse direction and retrace their steps for a short distance. These short periods of looking back tend to occur early in route acquisition and are more frequent on homeward than on food-bound segments.

Key words: wood ant, Formica rufa, view-based navigation, route learning, visual landmarks




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Exp. Biol.Home page
P. Graham, V. Durier, and T. Collett
The co-activation of snapshot memories in wood ants
J. Exp. Biol., June 15, 2007; 210(12): 2128 - 2136.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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