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Garden ant homing behavior in a maze task based on local visual cues

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Abstract

Although it has been shown that visual cues play an essential role in navigation by the garden ant Lasius niger, no previous studies have addressed the way in which information from local visual cues is acquired and utilized in navigation. We found that in the absence of pheromone trails, ants whose homing motivation was triggered by feeding returned to the nest following local visual cues. In our experiments, the ants travelled through a maze to reach a feeder. They explored the maze and sometimes became trapped in its dead ends. We found that the ants more effectively used visual cues during their homeward journey if they experienced a dead end during their outward journey. This result suggested that the ants used the information acquired from visual cues during the outward journey to avoid a dead end on their return journey.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank M. Kobayashi and M. Ozaki of Kobe University for advice on the collection and maintenance of the ants and for comments on the manuscript and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for financial support (B2130093).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Kobe University, Rokkodai-cho 1-1, Nada, Kobe, 657-8501, Japan

    T. Sakiyama & Y. P. Gunji

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  1. T. Sakiyama
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  2. Y. P. Gunji
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Correspondence to Y. P. Gunji.

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Sakiyama, T., Gunji, Y.P. Garden ant homing behavior in a maze task based on local visual cues. Insect. Soc. 60, 155–162 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-012-0279-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-012-0279-x

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