2011/04/10 by C. Buehlmann, Cornelia Buehlmann, P. Graham +5
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Computer Science · Medicine · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Animal Behavior and Reproduction #Attraction #Biology #Communication #Context (archaeology) #Ecology #Educational Robotics and Engineering #Foraging #Habitat #Honeydew #Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior #Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research #Neuroscience #Psychological Treatments and Assessments #Psychology #Sensory cue #Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies #Woodland
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s00040-022-00867-3
openalex publication_date 2022/06/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Ants are expert navigators combining innate and learnt navigational strategies. Whereas we know that the ants' feeding state segregates visual-navigational memories in ants navigating along a learnt route, it is an open question if the motivational state also affects the ants' innate visual preferences. Wood ant foragers show an innate attraction to conspicuous visual cues. These foragers inhabit cluttered woodland habitat and feed on honeydew from aphids on trees. Hence, the attraction to 'tree-like' objects might be an ecologically relevant behavior that is tailored to the wood ants' foraging ecology. Foragers from other ant species with different foraging ecologies show very different innate attractions. We investigated here the innate visual response of wood ant foragers with different motivational states, i.e., unfed or fed, as well as males that show no foraging activity. Our results show that ants from all three groups orient toward a prominent visual cue, i.e., this intrinsic visuomotor response is not context-dependent, but a hardwired behavior seen across different motivational and ecological contexts. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00040-022-00867-3.