2006/06/30 by Matthias Wittlinger, Rüdiger Wehner, Harald Wolf · 2 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Neuroscience · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior #Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research #Animal Behavior and Reproduction
paper · doi:10.1126/science.1126912
openalex publication_date 2006/06/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02
Desert ants, Cataglyphis, navigate in their vast desert habitat by path integration. They continuously integrate directions steered (as determined by their celestial compass) and distances traveled, gauged by as-yet-unknown mechanisms. Here we test the hypothesis that navigating ants measure distances traveled by using some kind of step integrator, or "step counter." We manipulated the lengths of the legs and, hence, the stride lengths, in freely walking ants. Animals with elongated ("stilts") or shortened legs ("stumps") take larger or shorter strides, respectively, and concomitantly misgauge travel distance. Travel distance is overestimated by experimental animals walking on stilts and underestimated by animals walking on stumps.