Minoura Mai, Sonoda Kohei, Sakiyama Tomoko, Gunji Yukio-Pegio
School of Fundamental Science and Engineering , Waseda University , Tokyo, Japan.
Research Organization of Science and Technology , Ritsumeikan University , Shiga, Japan.
R Soc Open Sci. 2016 Jan 27;3(1):150426. doi: 10.1098/rsos.150426. eCollection 2016 Jan.
Insects use a navigational toolkit consisting of multiple strategies such as path integration, view-dependent recognition methods and olfactory cues. The question arises as to how directional cues afforded by a visual panorama combine with olfactory cues from a pheromone trail to guide ants towards their nest. We positioned a garden ant Lasius niger on a rotating table, whereon a segment of a pheromone trail relative to the stationary panorama was rotated while the ant walked along the trail towards its nest. The rotational speed of the table (3 r.p.m.) was set so that the table would rotate through about 90° by the time that an ant had walked from the start to the centre of the table. The ant completed a U-turn at about this point and so travelled in a nest-ward direction without leaving the trail. These results suggest that the ants persist on the pheromone trail and use visual input to determine their direction of travel along the trail.
昆虫使用一套由多种策略组成的导航工具包，如路径整合、依赖视觉的识别方法和嗅觉线索。问题在于，视觉全景提供的方向线索如何与来自信息素踪迹的嗅觉线索相结合，引导蚂蚁返回巢穴。我们将一只黑褐蚁放置在一个旋转的桌子上，当蚂蚁沿着信息素踪迹朝着巢穴行走时，相对于静止全景的一段信息素踪迹在桌子上旋转。设置桌子的旋转速度（每分钟3转），以便在蚂蚁从起点走到桌子中心时，桌子大约旋转90°。蚂蚁大约在这一点上完成了一个180度的转向，因此在不离开踪迹的情况下朝着巢穴方向行进。这些结果表明，蚂蚁会坚持沿着信息素踪迹行进，并利用视觉输入来确定它们沿着踪迹的行进方向。
