Ants use the panoramic skyline as a visual cue during navigation

摘要: Foragers of many ant species learn long, visually guided routes between their nest and profitable feeding grounds [1], [2] [3]. The sensorimotor mechanisms underpinning the use visual landmarks are much studied [3], but less is known about how ants extract reliable landmark information from a complex scene. For navigation, useful should be reliably identifiable across multiple journeys in differing lighting conditions, one such robust source provided by skyline profile generated where terrestrial objects contrast against sky. Experiments with bees [4], [5] [6] suggest that insects might directional derived skyline, work reported here, we explicitly tested this hypothesis. Ants were trained to shuttle feeder. We then recreated as seen feeder using an artificial arena variable-height walls. returning captured near entrance released arena. followed direction given when it was aligned habitual homeward compass or rotated 150. This result indicates crude facsimilie can functionally mimic natural panoramic