Desert ants adjust their approach to a foraging site according to experience

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

Volumn 62, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 415-425

  Wolf, Harald ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ULM   (Germany)

Author keywords

Desert ant Cataglyphis; Error compensation; Foraging strategy; Goal approach; Navigation

Indexed keywords

ANT; DESERT; ERROR ANALYSIS; FEEDING GROUND; FORAGING BEHAVIOR; NAVIGATION; WALKING; WIND;

ANIMALIA; CATAGLYPHIS; CATAGLYPHIS FORTIS; FORMICIDAE;

EID: 37349064860     PISSN: 03405443     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s00265-007-0469-0     Document Type: Article

References (35)

1. Batschelet E (1981) Circular statistics in biology. Academic, New York
2. Bisch-Knaden S, Wehner R (2003) Landmark memories are more robust when acquired at the nest site than en route: experiments in desert ants. Naturwissenschaften 90:127-130
3. Cheng K, Srinivasan MV, Zhang SW (1999) Error is proportional to distance measured by honey bees: Weber's law in the odometer. Anim Cogn 2:11-16
4. Cheng K, Narendra A, Wehner R (2006) Behavioral ecology of odometric memories in desert ants: acquisition, retention, and integration. Behav Ecol 17:227-235
5. Collett M, Collett TS, Wehner R (1999) Calibration of vector navigation in desert ants. Curr Biol 9:1031-1034
6. Collett TS, Graham P, Durier V (2003) Route learning by insects. Curr Opin Neurobiol 13:718-725
7. Etienne AS, Maurer R, Berlie J, Reverdin B, Rowe T, Georgakopoulos J, Séguinot V (1998) Navigation through vector addition. Nature 396:161-164
8. Forel A (1902) Beispiele phylogenetischer Wirkungen und Rückwirkungen bei den Instinkten und dem Körperbau der Ameisen als Belege für die Evolutionslehre und die psychophysische Identitä tslehre. J Psychol Neurol 1:99-110
9. Fresneau D (1985) Individual foraging and path fidelity in a ponerine ant. Ins Soc 32:109-116
10. Harrison JF, Fewell JH, Stiller TM, Breed MD (1989) Effects of experience on use of orientation cues in the giant tropical ant. Anim Behav 37:869-871
11. Lehrer M (1993) Why do bees turn back and look? J Comp Physiol A 172:549-563
12. Merkle T, Knaden M, Wehner R (2006) Uncertainty about nest position influences systematic search strategies in desert ants. J Exp Biol 209:3545-3549
13. Müller M, Wehner R (1988) Path integration in desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 85:5287-5290
14. Narendra A, Cheng K, Wehner R (2007) Acquiring, retaining and integrating memories of the outbound distance in the Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti. J Exp Biol 210:570-577
15. Nicholson DJ, Judd SPD, Cartwright BA, Collett TS (1999) Learning walks and landmark guidance in wood ants (Formica rufa). J Exp Biol 202:1831-1838
16. Sachs L (1992) Angewandte Statistik. Springer, Berlin
17. Schmid-Hempel P (1983) Foraging ecology and colony structure of two sympatric species of desert ants, Cataglyphis bicolor and Cataglyphis albicans. Dissertation, Universität Zürich
18. Seidl T, Wehner R (2006) Visual and tactile learning of ground structures in desert ants. J Exp Biol 209:3336-3344
19. Sokal RR, Rohlf FJ (1995) Biometry: The principles and practice of statistics in biological research, 3rd edn. W. H. Freeman, New York
20. Sommer S, Wehner R (2004) The ant's estimation of distance travelled: experiments with desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis. J Comp Physiol A 190:1-6
21. Wehner R (1983) Taxonomie, Funktionsmorphologie und Zoogeographie der saharischen Wüstenameise Cataglyphis fortis (Forel 1902) stat. nov. Senckenbergiana Biol 64:89-132
22. Wehner R (1987) Spatial organization of foraging behavior in individually searching desert ants, Cataglyphis (Sahara Desert) and Ocymyrmex (Namib Desert). In: Pasteels JM, Deneubourg JL (eds) From individual to collective behavior in social insects. Birkhäuser, Basel, pp 15-42
23. Wehner R (1992) Arthropods. In: Papi F (ed) Animal homing. Chapman and Hall, London, pp 45-144
24. Wehner R (1996) Middle scale navigation: the insect case. J Exp Biol 199:125-127
25. Wehner R (2003) Desert ant navigation: how miniature brains solve complex tasks. J Comp Physiol A 189:579-588
26. Wehner R, Srinivasan MV (1981) Searching behaviour of desert ants, genus Cataglyphis (Formicidae, Hymenoptera). J Comp Physiol 142:315-338
27. Wehner R, Wehner S (1986) Path integration in desert ants. Approaching a long-standing puzzle in insect navigation. Monit Zool Ital (NS) 20:309-331
28. Wehner R, Harkness RD, Schmid-Hempel P (1983) Foraging strategies in individually searching ants, Cataglyphis bicolor (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Fischer, Stuttgart
29. Wehner R, Gallizi K, Frei C, Vesely M (2002) Calibration processes in desert ant navigation: vector courses and systematic search. J Comp Physiol A 188:683-693
30. Wittlinger M, Wehner R, Wolf H (2006) The ant odometer: stepping on stilts and stumps. Science 312:1965-1967
31. Wittlinger M, Wehner R, Wolf H (2007) The desert ant odometer: a stride integrator that accounts for stride length and walking speed. J Exp Biol 210:198-207
32. Wolf H, Wehner R (2000) Pinpointing food sources: olfactory and anemotactic orientation in desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis. J Exp Biol 203:857-868
33. Wolf H, Wehner R (2005) Desert ants compensate for navigation uncertainty. J Exp Biol 208:4223-4230
34. Zeil J, Kelber A, Voss R (1996) Structure and function of learning flights in ground-nesting bees and wasps. J Exp Biol 199:245-252
35. Ziegler PE, Wehner R (1997) Time-courses of memory decay in vector-based and landmark-based systems of navigation in desert ants Cataglyphis fortis. J Comp Physiol A 181:13-20