Czaczkes, Tomer J. and Schlosser, Linda and Heinze, Juergen and Witte, Volker (2014) Ants use directionless odour cues to recall odour-associated locations. BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY, 68 (6). pp. 981-988. ISSN 0340-5443, 1432-0762
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
Ants are key model organisms in the study of navigation and memory formation. Many ants learn food locations very quickly and with high accuracy. But can individual ants learn multiple separate food locations, associate them with a cue, and then correctly recall the food location and navigate towards it when later presented with that cue? In this experiment, we sequentially trained Lasius niger foragers to two scented feeders at either end of a T-maze. The next day, an odour cue corresponding to one of the food sources was presented to the ants in the air, on the substrate and via trophallaxis with nest mates. Trained foragers accurately navigated to the correct side of the T-maze (89 % correct decisions), but only after the first 10 min of testing. This demonstrates the ability of ants to perform associative recall, forming clear associates between odour cues and food locations and using these associations to navigate to food sources. We also found that trained ants in the first 10 min of testing showed no preference for the correct side (57 % correct decisions), which may be related to the motivational state of the ants tested. Ants with different motivational states (whether they are 'scouting' or 'recruited') made use of route memories in a completely different manner. This highlights the importance of taking account of motivational states when performing behavioural experiments.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | LASIUS-NIGER; TERM-MEMORY; WOOD ANTS; HYMENOPTERA; FORMICIDAE; INFORMATION; HONEYBEES; FORAGERS; PRIVATE; DANCE; Foraging; Route memory; Associative learning; Motivational states; Odour cues; Ants |
| Subjects: | 500 Science > 590 Zoological sciences |
| Divisions: | Biology, Preclinical Medicine > Institut für Zoologie > Zoologie/Evolutionsbiologie (Prof. Dr. Jürgen Heinze) |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 06 Nov 2019 11:31 |
| Last Modified: | 06 Nov 2019 11:31 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/10137 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
