Finding food: Outbound searching behavior in the Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti

Behavioral Ecology

Volumn 24, Issue 1, 2013, Pages 128-135

  Schultheiss, Patrick ^a   Cheng, Ken ^a  

^a MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

desert ant; foraging; L vy walk; learning; random walk; systematic search.

Indexed keywords

ADAPTATION; ANT; CARBOHYDRATE; DESERT; EVOLUTIONARILY STABLE STRATEGY; FORAGING BEHAVIOR; LEARNING; PARENT-OFFSPRING INTERACTION; PROTEIN; RANDOM WALK METHOD; TAXONOMY;

MELOPHORUS BAGOTI;

EID: 84871217090     PISSN: 10452249     EISSN: 14657279     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/beheco/ars143     Document Type: Article

References (48)

1. Bartumeus F, da Luz MGE, Viswanathan GM, Catalan J. 2005. Animal search strategies: a quantitative random-walk analysis. Ecology. 86:3078-3087.
2. Bell WJ. 1990. Searching behavior patterns in insects. Annu Rev Entomol. 35:447-467.
3. Bell WJ. 1991. Searching behaviour. The behavioural ecology of finding resources. London; Chapman & Hall.
4. Burnham KP, Anderson DR. 2002. Model selection and multimodel inference: a practical information-theoretic approach. Heidelberg; Springer.
5. Cheng K, Narendra A, Sommer S, Wehner R. 2009. Traveling in clutter: navigation in the Central Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti. Behav Processes. 80:261-268.
6. Christian KA, Morton SR. 1992. Extreme thermophilia in a central Australian ant, Melophorus bagoti. Physiol Zool. 65:885-905.
7. Crist TO, MacMahon JA. 1991. Individual foraging components of harvester ants-movement patterns and seed patch fidelity. Insect Soc. 38:379-396.
8. Dukas R. 1998. Evolutionary ecology of learning. In: Dukas R, editor. Cognitive ecology: the evolutionary ecology of information processing and decision making. Chicago (IL); University of Chicago Press. p. 129-174.
9. Dukas R. 2008. Evolutionary biology of insect learning. Annu Rev Entomol. 53:145-160.
10. Edwards AM. 2008. Using likelihood to test for Lévy flight search patterns and for general power-law distributions in nature. J Anim Ecol. 77:1212-1222.
11. Edwards AM. 2011. Overturning conclusions of Lévy flight movement patterns by fishing boats and foraging animals. Ecology. 92:1247-1257.
12. Edwards AM, Phillips RA, Watkins NW, Freeman MP, Murphy EJ, Afanasyev V, Buldyrev SV, da Luz MGE, Raposo EP, Stanley HE, Viswanathan GM. 2007. Revisiting Lévy flight search patterns of wandering albatrosses, bumblebees and deer. Nature. 449:1044-1048.
13. Fourcassié V, Traniello JFA. 1993. Effects of experience on foodsearching behavior in the ant Formica schaufussi (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). J Insect Behav. 6:287-299.
14. Fourcassié V, Traniello JFA. 1994. Food searching behaviour in the ant Formica schaufussi (Hymenoptera, Formicidae): response of naive foragers to protein and carbohydrate food. Anim Behav. 48:69-79.
15. Hays GC, Bastian T, Doyle TK, Fossette S, Gleiss AC, Gravenor MB, Hobson VJ, Humphries NE, Lilley MK, Pade NG, Sims DW. 2012. High activity and Lévy searches: jellyfish can search the water column like fish. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 279:465-473.
16. Hilborn R, Mangel M. 1997. The ecological detective: confronting models with data. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.
17. Hoedjes KM, Kruidhof HM, Huigens ME, Dicke M, Vet LEM, Smid HM. 2011. Natural variation in learning rate and memory dynamics in parasitoid wasps: opportunities for converging ecology and neuroscience. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 278:889-897.
18. Hoffmann G. 1983. The search behavior of the desert isopod Hemilepistus reaumuri as compared with a systematic search. Behav Ecol Sociobiol. 13:93-106.
19. Humphries NE, Queiroz N, Dyer JRM, Pade NG, Musyl MK, Schaefer KM, Fuller DW, Brunnschweiler JM, Doyle TK, Houghton JDR, Hays GC, Jones CS, Noble LR, Wearmouth VJ, Southall EJ, Sims DW. 2010. Environmental context explains Lévy and Brownian movement patterns of marine predators. Nature. 465:1066-1069.
20. James A, Plank MJ, Edwards AM. 2011. Assessing Lévy walks as models of animal foraging. J R Soc Interface. 8:1233-1247.
21. Kohler M, Wehner R. 2005. Idiosyncratic route-based memories in desert ants, Melophorus bagoti: how do they interact with path-integration vectors? Neurobiol Learn Mem. 83:1-12.
22. Lomholt MA, Koren T, Metzler R, Klafter J. 2008. Lévy strategies in intermittent search processes are advantageous. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 105:11055-11059.
23. Merkle T, Knaden M, Wehner R. 2006. Uncertainty about nest position influences systematic search strategies in desert ants. J Exp Biol. 209:3545-3549.
24. Muser B, Sommer S, Wolf H, Wehner R. 2005. Foraging ecology of the thermophilic Australian desert ant, Melophorus bagoti. Aust J Zool. 53:301-311.
25. Narendra A. 2007a. Homing strategies of the Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti I. Proportional path-integration takes the ant halfway home. J Exp Biol. 210:1798-1803.
26. Narendra A. 2007b. Homing strategies of the Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti II. Interaction of the path integrator with visual cue information. J Exp Biol. 210:1804-1812.
27. Papastamatiou YP, Cartamil DP, Lowe CG, Meyer CG, Wetherbee BM, Holland KN. 2011. Scales of orientation, directed walks and movement path structure in sharks. J Anim Ecol. 80:864-874.
28. Pyke GH. 1983. Animal movements: an optimal foraging approach. In: Swingland IR, Greenwood PJ, editors. The ecology of animal movement. Oxford; Clarendon Press. p. 7-31.
29. Pyke GH. 1984. Optimal foraging theory: a critical review. Annu Rev Ecol Syst. 15:523-575.
30. Reynolds AM, Rhodes CJ. 2009. The Lévy flight paradigm: random search patterns and mechanisms. Ecology. 90:877-887.
31. Reynolds AM, Smith AD, Menzel R, Greggers U, Reynolds DR, Riley Jr. 2007a. Displaced honey bees perform optimal scale-free search flights. Ecology. 88:1955-1961.
32. Reynolds AM, Smith AD, Reynolds DR, Carreck NL, Osborne JL. 2007b. Honeybees perform optimal scale-free searching flights when attempting to locate a food source. J Exp Biol. 210:3763-3770.
33. Scharf I, Kotler B, Ovadia O. 2009. Consequences of food distribution for optimal searching behavior: an evolutionary model. Evol Ecol. 23:245-259.
34. Schmid-Hempel P. 1984. Individually different foraging methods in the desert ant Cataglyphis bicolor (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Behav Ecol Sociobiol. 14:263-271.
35. Schultheiss P, Cheng K. 2011. Finding the nest: inbound searching behaviour in the Australian desert ant, Melophorus bagoti. Anim Behav. 81:1031-1038.
36. Schultheiss P, Schwarz S, Wystrach A. 2010. Nest relocation and colony founding in the Australian desert ant, Melophorus bagoti Lubbock (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Psyche. 2010:435838.
37. Shlesinger MF, Klafter J. 1986. Lévy walks versus Lévy flights. In: Stanley HE, Ostrowski N, editors. On growth and form. Amsterdam: Martinus Nijhof Publishers. p. 279-283.
38. Sims DW, Righton D, Pitchford JW. 2007. Minimizing errors in identifying Lévy flight behaviour of organisms. J Anim Ecol. 76:222-229.
39. Sims DW, Southall EJ, Humphries NE, Hays GC, Bradshaw CJA, Pitchford JW, James A, Ahmed MZ, Brierley AS, Hindell MA, Morritt D, Musyl MK, Righton D, Shepard ELC, Wearmouth VJ, Wilson RP, Witt MJ, Metcalfe JD. 2008. Scaling laws of marine predator search behaviour. Nature. 451:1098-1102.
40. Sokal RR, Rohlf FJ. 1995. Biometry: the principles and practice of statistics in biological research, 3rd ed. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company.
41. Steck K, Hansson BS, Knaden M. 2009. Smells like home: desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, use olfactory landmarks to pinpoint the nest. Front Zool. 6:5.
42. Stephens DW, Krebs Jr. 1986. Foraging theory. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.
43. Traniello JFA, Kozol AJ, Fournier MA. 1992. Resource-related spatial patterns of search in the ant Formica schaufussi: a field study. Psyche. 99:87-94.
44. Viswanathan GM, Afanasyev V, Buldyrev SV, Murphy EJ, Prince PA, Stanley HE. 1996. Lévy flight search patterns of wandering albatrosses. Nature. 381:413-415.
45. Viswanathan GM, Buldyrev SV, Havlin S, da Luz MGE, Raposo EP, Stanley HE. 1999. Optimizing the success of random searches. Nature. 401:911-914.
46. Wolf H, Wehner R. 2005. Desert ants compensate for navigation uncertainty. J Exp Biol. 208:4223-4230.
47. Wystrach A, Schwarz S, Schultheiss P, Beugnon G, Cheng K. 2011. Views, landmarks, and routes: how do desert ants negotiate an obstacle course? J Comp Physiol A. 197:167-179.
48. Ydenberg RC. 1998. Behavioral decisions about foraging and predator avoidance. In: Dukas R, editor. Cognitive ecology: the evolutionary ecology of information processing and decision making. Chicago (IL); University of Chicago Press. p. 343-378.