Sommer S, Wehner R
Institute of Zoology, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2004 Jan;190(1):1-6. doi: 10.1007/s00359-003-0465-4. Epub 2003 Nov 12.
Foraging desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, monitor their position relative to the nest by path integration. They continually update the direction and distance to the nest by employing a celestial compass and an odometer. In the present account we addressed the question of how the precision of the ant's estimate of its homing distance depends on the distance travelled. We trained ants to forage at different distances in linear channels comprising a nest entrance and a feeder. For testing we caught ants at the feeder and released them in a parallel channel. The results show that ants tend to underestimate their distances travelled. This underestimation is the more pronounced, the larger the foraging distance gets. The quantitative relationship between training distance and the ant's estimate of this distance can be described by a logarithmic and an exponential model. The ant's odometric undershooting could be adaptive during natural foraging trips insofar as it leads the homing ant to concentrate the major part of its nest-search behaviour on the base of its individual foraging sector, i.e. on its familiar landmark corridor.
觅食的沙漠蚂蚁，即福氏箭蚁，通过路径整合来监测它们相对于巢穴的位置。它们利用天体罗盘和里程计不断更新到巢穴的方向和距离。在本报告中，我们探讨了蚂蚁对归巢距离估计的精度如何取决于所行进的距离这一问题。我们训练蚂蚁在由巢穴入口和喂食器组成的线性通道中不同距离处觅食。为了进行测试，我们在喂食器处捕获蚂蚁，并将它们释放到平行通道中。结果表明，蚂蚁往往会低估它们行进的距离。这种低估越明显，觅食距离就越大。训练距离与蚂蚁对该距离的估计之间的定量关系可以用对数模型和指数模型来描述。蚂蚁的里程计低估在自然觅食过程中可能具有适应性，因为它会使归巢的蚂蚁将其巢穴搜索行为的主要部分集中在其个体觅食区域的基部，即其熟悉的地标走廊上。
