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- Fig. 1.
Experimental setup. (A) The study site. All nests were within 35 m of one another and located near Eucalyptus trees. (B) Polarisation experiment. A polarisation filter was placed over an ant with its e-vector transmission axis 45 deg to the left (as in this example) or right of the dominant direction of skylight polarisation. We recorded exit orientation (α) and reorientation (α′) of individuals. (C) Landmark-blocking experiment. A square was marked out around the nest and a screen was erected on one side at a time (insert shows screen position with respect to the main foraging direction; F, front; B, behind; L, left; R, right). We recorded the time individual foragers took to exit a 30 cm reference circle around the nest, the exit orientation upon leaving the reference circle and the proportion that crossed a 1.2 m reference line in the main foraging direction.
- Fig. 2.
Polarisation experiment. Circular histograms showing the exit orientation of ants when the polarising filter was rotated left (–45 deg) or right (+45 deg), and their reorientation after exiting, for (A) Nest 1 and (B) Nest 3. Arrows show the average orientation and length of mean vector. Triangles indicate the –45 deg or +45 deg rotation of the filter; N is the sample size.
- Fig. 3.
Visual blocking experiment. We recorded the initial orientation of individual ants at the three nests (A,D,G), the time taken to exit the 30 cm circle (B,E,H) and the proportion that crossed the 1.2 m reference line (C,F,I) when the screen was down (black) and up (red) for the four directions (front, behind, left, right) around each nest. *Significance at P<0.0125; **significance at P<0.0025. Box plot conventions: the lower whisker is the minimum value, the bottom of the box is the first quartile, the middle line is the median, the top of the box is the third quartile and the top whisker is the maximum value. The box contains the middle 50% of values.
- Fig. 4.
Displacement experiment. Six ants were captured halfway between the nest and tree and within 50 cm of the nest-to-tree line (dashed rectangle). They were then displaced either 2 m to the left or 2 m to the right of the nest-to-tree line (R). Normal foraging paths are shown in grey, displaced paths are in black.
- Fig. 5.
View of the local environment. 360 deg panoramic images from the entrances of the three nests, together with the position of the screen (black rectangle) when blocking the view towards the main foraging direction.
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