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Blinkered teaching: tandem running by visually impaired ants

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Abstract

During tandem runs, one ant worker recruits another to an important resource. Here, we begin to investigate how dependent are tandem leaders and followers on visual cues by painting over their compound eyes to impair their vision. There are two ways in which Temnothorax albipennis might use vision during tandem running. First, the follower might track the movements of the leader by keeping it in sight. Our results suggest that the ants do not use vision in this way. For example, in all four classes of tandem run (those with either leader or follower, both, or neither of their participants with visual impairments) progress was most smooth at about 3 mm/s. This suggests that communication between leaders and followers during tandem runs is not based on vision and is purely tactile and pheromonal. Second, the leader and the follower might be using vision to navigate and our results support this possibility but also suggest that these ants have other methods of navigation. Ants with visual impairments were more likely to follow than to lead, but could occupy either role, even though they had many fully sighted nestmates. This might help to explain why the ants did not focus grooming on their most visually impaired nestmates. Wild-type tandem runs, with both participants fully sighted and presumably taking time to learn landmarks, were overall significantly slower, smoother, and a little less tortuous, than the other treatments. All four classes of tandem run significantly increased mean instantaneous speeds and mean absolute changes in instantaneous acceleration over their journeys. Moreover, tandems with sighted followers increased their speed with time more than the other treatments. In general, our findings suggest that eyesight is used for navigation during tandem running but that these ants also probably use other orientation systems during such recruitment and to learn how to get to new nest sites. Our results suggest that the ants’ methods of teaching and learning are very robust and flexible.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the following undergraduates for their help with this project; Clare E. Gray, Katy H. Moran, Sam Ellis and Saki Okuda. We also thank the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Bristol for summer studentships that supported these students. We also thank two anonymous reviewers. NRF and EJHR gratefully acknowledge EPSRC grant EP/D076226/1. NRF also wishes to thank the BBSRC (grant no. BB/G02166X/1) for their support. TOR and ABS-F gratefully acknowledge EPSRC grant EP/E061796/1.

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Author notes

  1. Elva J. H. Robinson

    Present address: York Centre for Complex Systems Analysis, Department of Biology, University of York, York, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1UG, UK

    Elizabeth L. Franklin, Thomas O. Richardson, Elva J. H. Robinson & Nigel R. Franks

  2. Department of Engineering Design and Mathematics, University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK

    Thomas O. Richardson & Ana B. Sendova-Franks

Authors
  1. Elizabeth L. Franklin
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  2. Thomas O. Richardson
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  3. Ana B. Sendova-Franks
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  4. Elva J. H. Robinson
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  5. Nigel R. Franks
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nigel R. Franks.

Additional information

Communicated by M. Giurfa

All authors contributed equally.

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Franklin, E.L., Richardson, T.O., Sendova-Franks, A.B. et al. Blinkered teaching: tandem running by visually impaired ants. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 65, 569–579 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-010-1057-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-010-1057-2

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