Terrestrial cue learning and retention during the outbound and inbound foraging trip in the desert ant, Cataglyphis velox

Foraging ants are able to acquire and retain long-term memories of panorama cues around the nest and along known routes. Here we explore foragers’ ability to learn and retain skyline cues experienced on only the outbound or inbound portion of the foraging trip. Foragers exposed to the skyline on the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Comparative Physiology Vol. 205; no. 2; pp. 177 - 189
Main Authors: Freas, Cody A., Spetch, Marcia L.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.04.2019
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Animal Physiology
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Cataglyphis
Cues
Delay
Deserts
foraging
Learning
Life Sciences
Long term memory
memory
Navigation behavior
nests
Neurosciences
Original Paper
Retention
Terrestrial environments
Zoology
Desert ants
View sequence
Long-term memory
Routes
Panorama
ISSN:0340-7594, 1432-1351, 1432-1351
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Foraging ants are able to acquire and retain long-term memories of panorama cues around the nest and along known routes. Here we explore foragers’ ability to learn and retain skyline cues experienced on only the outbound or inbound portion of the foraging trip. Foragers exposed to the skyline on the outbound portion showed single trial learning of these cues. Furthermore, the navigational performance of these “Outbound-Only” foragers was on par with foragers that experienced the full route. In contrast, foragers experiencing the skyline only on the inbound portion, “Inbound-Only” foragers, took 5 trips to successfully learn these cues. These performance differences persisted for long-term memory retention. Outbound-Only foragers successfully oriented after a 3-day delay and showed similar performance to the full route control, whereas Inbound-Only foragers were no longer able to orient successfully to these cues after 3 days. Additionally, long-term memory formation of skyline cues appears to require multiple presentations, as foragers with only one outbound experience of the skyline could not successfully orient after the delay. Our results suggest that terrestrial cue learning and retention is more robust when cues are experienced on the outbound segment of the foraging trip.
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ISSN:0340-7594
1432-1351
1432-1351
DOI:10.1007/s00359-019-01316-6