Institute of Systematics and Ecology of Animals, Siberian Branch RAS, Frunze 11, Novosibirsk, 630091, Russia.
Novosibirsk State University, Pirogova 2, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia.
Anim Cogn. 2020 Nov;23(6):1143-1159. doi: 10.1007/s10071-020-01423-x. Epub 2020 Aug 25.
Ants are central-place foragers: they always return to the nest, and this requires the ability to remember relationships between features of the environment, or an individual's path through the landscape. The distribution of these cognitive responsibilities within a colony depends on a species' foraging style. Solitary foraging as well as leader-scouting, which is based on information transmission about a distant targets from scouts to foragers, can be considered the most challenging tasks in the context of ants' spatial cognition. Solitary foraging is found in species of almost all subfamilies of ants, whereas leader-scouting has been discovered as yet only in the Formica rufa group of species (red wood ants). Solitary foraging and leader-scouting ant species, although enormously different in their levels of sociality and ecological specificities, have many common traits of individual cognitive navigation, such as the primary use of visual navigation, excellent visual landmark memories, and the subordinate role of odour orientation. In leader-scouting species, spatial cognition and the ability to transfer information about a distant target dramatically differ among scouts and foragers, suggesting individual cognitive specialization. I suggest that the leader-scouting style of recruitment is closely connected with the ecological niche of a defined group of species, in particular, their searching patterns within the tree crown. There is much work to be done to understand what cognitive mechanisms underpin route planning and communication about locations in ants.
它们总是返回巢穴，这需要它们具备记住环境特征之间关系的能力，或者说记住个体在景观中的路径。这些认知责任在蚁群中的分布取决于物种的觅食方式。独居觅食以及基于侦察蚁向觅食蚁传递关于远处目标信息的领导侦察，可以被视为蚂蚁空间认知中最具挑战性的任务。独居觅食存在于几乎所有蚂蚁亚科的物种中，而领导侦察迄今仅在红褐林蚁群物种（红蚂蚁）中被发现。独居觅食和领导侦察蚁种，尽管在社会性和生态特异性方面有很大的不同，但它们有许多个体认知导航的共同特征，例如主要使用视觉导航、出色的视觉地标记忆以及气味定向的从属作用。在领导侦察物种中，侦察蚁和觅食蚁之间的空间认知和远距离目标信息传递能力有很大差异，表明存在个体认知专业化。我认为，领导侦察的招募方式与特定物种群的生态位密切相关，特别是它们在树冠内的搜索模式。要了解支撑蚂蚁中路线规划和位置通信的认知机制需要做更多的工作。
