Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
J Exp Biol. 2022 Jun 15;225(12). doi: 10.1242/jeb.243947. Epub 2022 Jun 23.
The navigation by chemo-textural familiarity hypothesis (NCFH) suggests that scorpions use their midventral pectines to gather chemical and textural information near their burrows and use this information as they subsequently return home. For NCFH to be viable, animals must somehow acquire home-directed 'tastes' of the substrate, such as through path integration (PI) and/or learning walks. We conducted laboratory behavioral trials using desert grassland scorpions (Paruroctonus utahensis). Animals reliably formed burrows in small mounds of sand we provided in the middle of circular, sand-lined behavioral arenas. We processed overnight infrared video recordings with a MATLAB script that tracked animal movements at 1-2 s intervals. In all, we analyzed the movements of 23 animals, representing nearly 1500 h of video recording. We found that once animals established their home burrows, they immediately made one to several short, looping excursions away from and back to their burrows before walking greater distances. We also observed similar excursions when animals made burrows in level sand in the middle of the arena (i.e. no mound provided). These putative learning walks, together with recently reported PI in scorpions, may provide the crucial home-directed information requisite for NCFH.
化学生理熟悉性导航假说（NCFH）认为，蝎子利用它们的中腹栉齿在洞穴附近收集化学和纹理信息，并在随后返回洞穴时利用这些信息。为了使 NCFH 可行，动物必须以某种方式获得对基质的指向家的“味道”，例如通过路径整合（PI）和/或学习行走。我们使用沙漠草原蝎子（Paruroctonus utahensis）进行了实验室行为试验。动物在我们提供的圆形、沙衬行为竞技场中间的小沙丘中可靠地形成洞穴。我们使用 MATLAB 脚本处理过夜的红外视频记录，该脚本以 1-2 s 的间隔跟踪动物的运动。总共，我们分析了 23 只动物的运动，代表近 1500 小时的视频记录。我们发现，一旦动物建立了自己的家洞穴，它们就会立即离开洞穴进行一到几次短暂的、循环的短途旅行，然后再走更远的距离。当动物在竞技场中间的平地（即没有提供土丘）中挖洞时，我们也观察到了类似的短途旅行。这些假定的学习行走，以及最近在蝎子中报道的 PI，可能为 NCFH 提供了必要的指向家的关键信息。
