| Title: | Not just going with the flow: foraging ants attend to polarised light even while on the pheromone trail |
| Author(s): | Freas CA; Plowes NJR; Spetch ML; |
| Address: | "Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, P217 Biological Sciences Building, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E9, Canada. freascody@gmail.com. Department of Life Sciences, Mesa Community College, 1833 Southern Avenue, Mesa, AZ, 85202, USA. Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, P217 Biological Sciences Building, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E9, Canada" |
| Journal Title: | J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s00359-019-01363-z |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1432-1351 (Electronic) 0340-7594 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "The polarisation pattern of skylight serves as an orientation cue for many invertebrates. Solitary foraging ants, in particular, rely on polarised light to orient along with a number of other visual cues. Yet it is unknown, if this cue is actively used in socially foraging species that use pheromone trails to navigate. Here, we explore the use of polarised light in the presence of the pheromone cues of the foraging trail. The desert harvester ant, Veromessor pergandei, relies on pheromone cues and path integration in separate stages of their foraging ecology (column and fan, respectively). Here, we show that foragers actively orient to an altered overhead polarisation pattern, both while navigating individually in the fan and while on the pheromone-based column. These heading changes occurred during twilight, as well as in the early morning and late afternoon before sunset. Differences in shift size indicate that foragers attend to both the polarisation pattern and the sun's position when available, yet during twilight, headings are dominated by the polarisation pattern. Finally, when the sun's position was experimentally blocked before sunset, shift sizes increased similar to twilight testing. These findings show that celestial cues provide directional information on the pheromone trail" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Ants/*physiology *Cues Feeding Behavior/*physiology Orientation, Spatial/*physiology Pheromones Spatial Navigation/*physiology *Sunlight Celestial compass Column and fan Cue weighting Orientation Twilight;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineFreas, Cody A Plowes, Nicola J R Spetch, Marcia L eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Germany 2019/08/20 J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2019 Oct; 205(5):755-767. doi: 10.1007/s00359-019-01363-z. Epub 2019 Aug 17" |
