Looking and homing: how displaced ants decide where to go.

摘要: We caught solitary foragers of the Australian Jack Jumper ant, Myrmecia croslandi, and released them in three compass directions at distances 10 15 m from nest locations they have never been before. recorded head orientation movements ants within a radius 20 cm release point and, some cases, tracked their subsequent paths with differential GPS. find that upon surfacing transport vials onto platform, most move into home direction after looking around briefly. The use systematic scanning procedure, consisting saccadic body rotations sweep gaze across scene an average angular velocity 90° s(-1) intermittent changes turning direction. By mapping ants' local panorama, we neither nor decisions to change are clearly associated salient or significant features scene. Instead, look frequently start walking fast when doing so. Displaced can thus identify little translation, but exclusively through rotational scanning. discuss navigational information content habitat how insects' behaviour informs us about may acquire retrieve information.