School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, BS8 1TQ, Bristol, UK.
Department of Engineering Design and Mathematics, University of the West of England, BS16 1QY, Bristol, UK.
Sci Rep. 2018 Apr 11;8(1):5825. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-23652-4.
Workers of the house-hunting ant Temnothorax albipennis rely on visual edge following and landmark recognition to navigate their rocky environment, and they also exhibit a leftward turning bias when exploring unknown nest sites. We used electron microscopy to count the number of ommatidia composing the compound eyes of workers, males and queens, to make an approximate assessment of their relative sampling resolution; and to establish whether there is an asymmetry in the number of ommatidia composing the workers' eyes, which might provide an observable, mechanistic explanation for the turning bias. We hypothesise that even small asymmetries in relative visual acuity between left and right eyes could be magnified by developmental experience into a symmetry-breaking turning preference that results in the inferior eye pointing toward the wall. Fifty-six workers were examined: 45% had more ommatidia in the right eye, 36% more in the left, and 20% an equal number. A tentative connection between relative ommatidia count for each eye and turning behaviour was identified, with a stronger assessment of behavioural lateralization before imaging and a larger sample suggested for further work. There was a clear sexual dimorphism in ommatidia counts between queens and males.
寻巢蚂蚁 Temnothorax albipennis 的工蚁依赖于视觉边缘跟踪和地标识别来导航它们的多岩石环境，并且在探索未知巢穴时也表现出向左转弯的偏向。我们使用电子显微镜来计算组成工蚁、雄蚁和蚁后的复眼的小眼数量，以对它们的相对采样分辨率进行大致评估；并确定组成工蚁眼睛的小眼数量是否存在不对称性，这可能为转弯偏向提供可观察到的机械解释。我们假设，即使左右眼之间相对视力的微小不对称性也可能因发育经验而放大为打破对称性的转弯偏好，导致劣眼指向墙壁。检查了 56 只工蚁：54%的右眼小眼数量较多，36%的左眼小眼数量较多，20%的左右眼小眼数量相等。在成像之前，对相对小眼数量与行为的关系进行了初步评估，建议进一步增加样本量以进行更深入的研究。在小眼数量方面，蚁后和雄蚁之间存在明显的性别二态性。
