Desert ants (Melophorus bagoti) oscillate and scan more in navigation when the visual scene changes.

ABSTRACT: Solitarily foraging ants learn to navigate between important locations by comparing their current view with memorized scenes along a familiar route. As desert ants, in particular, travel between their nest and a food source, they establish stable and visually guided routes that guide them without relying on trail pheromones. We investigated how changes in familiar visual scenes affect the navigation of the red honey ant (Melophorus bagoti). In Experiment 1, ants were trained to follow a one-way diamond-shaped path to forage and return home. We manipulated scene familiarity by adding a board on their homebound route just before the nest. In Experiment 2, ants were trained to travel a straight path from their nest to a feeder, and we removed the prominent landmarks on the route after they ha

SUBMITTER: Deeti S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11842525 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature