Desert ant navigation: how miniature brains solve complex tasks
Top Cited Papers
- 1 August 2003
- journal article
- other
- Published by Springer Nature in Journal of Comparative Physiology A
- Vol. 189 (8) , 579-588
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-003-0431-1
Abstract
This essay presents and discusses the state of the art in studies of desert ant (Cataglyphis) navigation. In dealing with behavioural performances, neural mechanisms, and ecological functions these studies ultimately aim at an evolutionary understanding of the insect's navigational toolkit: its skylight (polarization) compass, its path integrator, its view-dependent ways of recognizing places and following landmark routes, and its strategies of flexibly interlinking these modes of navigation to generate amazingly rich behavioural outputs. The general message is that Cataglyphis uses path integration as an egocentric guideline to acquire continually updated spatial information about places and routes. Hence, it relies on procedural knowledge, and largely context-dependent retrieval of such knowledge, rather than on all-embracing geocentred representations of space.Keywords
This publication has 33 references indexed in Scilit:
- Landmark memories are more robust when acquired at the nest site than en route: experiments in desert antsThe Science of Nature, 2003
- Egocentric information helps desert ants to navigate around familiar obstaclesJournal of Experimental Biology, 2001
- A larger hippocampus is associated with longer-lasting spatial memoryProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2001
- Two spatial memories for honeybee navigationProceedings Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2000
- Polarization-Sensitive Interneurons in the Optic Lobe of the Desert Ant Cataglyphis bicolorThe Science of Nature, 2000
- Detectors for polarized skylight in insects: a survey of ommatidial specializations in the dorsal rim area of the compound eyeMicroscopy Research and Technique, 1999
- Spatial accuracy in food-storing and nonstoring birdsAnimal Behaviour, 1999
- How polarization-sensitive interneurones of crickets see the polarization pattern of the sky: a field study with an opto-electronic model neuroneJournal of Experimental Biology, 1999
- Bees travel novel homeward routes by integrating separately acquired vector memoriesAnimal Behaviour, 1998
- Differences in Hippocampal Volume among Food Storing CorvidsBrain, Behavior and Evolution, 1996