Desert ant navigation: how miniature brains solve complex tasks.

R Wehner

doi:10.1007/s00359-003-0431-1

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Desert ant navigation: how miniature brains solve complex tasks.

R Wehner

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Abstract

This essay presents and discusses the state of the art in studies of desert ant (Cataglyphis) navigation. In dealing with behavioural performances, neural mechanisms, and ecological functions these studies ultimately aim at an evolutionary understanding of the insect's navigational toolkit: its skylight (polarization) compass, its path integrator, its view-dependent ways of recognizing places and following landmark routes, and its strategies of flexibly interlinking these modes of navigation to generate amazingly rich behavioural outputs. The general message is that Cataglyphis uses path integration as an egocentric guideline to acquire continually updated spatial information about places and routes. Hence, it relies on procedural knowledge, and largely context-dependent retrieval of such knowledge, rather than on all-embracing geocentred representations of space.

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Animals Ants Behavior, Animal Brain Cues Desert Climate Distance Perception Learning Locomotion Mathematics Motor Activity Orientation Psychomotor Performance Space Perception Species Specificity Lecture Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

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R Wehner. 2003-07-23. Desert ant navigation: how miniature brains solve complex tasks.. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-003-0431-1

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