Surface structure helps desert ants return to known feeding sites

Abstract

Desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, return to their nest when they are disturbed during their foraging trips. Training them to a landmark corridor enabled us to induce ants that were captured immediately after leaving the nest and transferred to an unknown area to start their foraging trips.¹ However, most of the ants never traveled the entire foraging distance to the feeder, but aborted their runs after the landmark corridor was no longer visible. Therefore, apart from landmark information and path integrator, there are additional cues that determine the ants’ foraging behavior. Considering the reduced straightness of the outbound runs, I argue that surface structure might have a remarkable impact on foraging desert ants.

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Acknowledgements

I thank Rüdiger Wehner for including me in his research project on path integration in desert ants, his continuous support and encouragement, and the many—and still ongoing—stimulating discussions (also regarding this study).

Figures and Tables

Figure 1 Paths of three desert ants that had been trained to forage from the nest to the feeder through a landmark corridor. The ants were captured immediately after leaving the nest and transferred to an unknown test area (with the same landmark arrangement). PR: points of release, F: fictive feeder positions, circles: landmarks. Mesh width of grid: 2 m.

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