Department of Applied Biological Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, Noda-shi, Chiba 278-8510, Japan.
Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan.
Zoolog Sci. 2022 Dec;39(6):529-544. doi: 10.2108/zs220035.
Many insects, including ants, are known to respond visually to conspicuous objects. In this study, we compared orientation in an arena containing only a black target beacon as local information in six species of ants of widely varying degree of phylogenic relatedness, foraging strategy, and eye morphology (, , , , and two spp.), often found associated in similar urban anthropogenic habitats. Four species of ants displayed orientation toward the beacon, with two orienting toward it directly, while the other two approached it via convoluted paths. The two remaining species did not show any orientation with respect to the beacon. The results did not correlate with morphological parameters of the visual systems and could not be fully interpreted in terms of the species' ecology, although convoluted paths are linked to higher significance of chemical signals. Beacon aiming was shown to be an innate behavior in visually naive workers, which, however, were less strongly attracted to the beacon than older foragers. Thus, despite sharing the same habitats and supposedly having similar neural circuits, even a very simple stimulus-related behavior in the absence of other information can differ widely in ants but is likely an ancestral trait retained especially in species with smaller eyes. The comparative analysis of nervous systems opens the possibility of determining general features of circuits responsible for innate and possibly learned attraction toward particular stimuli.
许多昆虫，包括蚂蚁，已知会对明显的物体做出视觉反应。在这项研究中，我们比较了在一个只包含黑色目标信标的竞技场中，以本地信息的形式存在的情况下，六种具有广泛亲缘关系、觅食策略和眼形态差异的蚂蚁（、、、、和两种 spp.）的定向行为，这些蚂蚁通常在类似的城市人为栖息地中被发现。四种蚂蚁表现出对信标的定向行为，其中两种直接指向它，而另外两种则通过曲折的路径接近它。其余两种物种没有表现出任何对信标的定向行为。结果与视觉系统的形态参数无关，也不能完全根据物种的生态学来解释，尽管曲折的路径与化学信号的更高意义有关。在视觉上是盲目的 工蚁中，定向行为被证明是一种先天行为，但与老年觅食者相比，它们对信标吸引力较弱。因此，尽管蚂蚁共享相同的栖息地并可能具有相似的神经回路，但即使是在没有其他信息的情况下，与非常简单的刺激相关的行为也可能在蚂蚁中存在很大差异，但它可能是一种特别在眼睛较小的物种中保留的祖先特征。神经系统的比较分析为确定负责对特定刺激产生先天和可能习得的吸引力的电路的一般特征提供了可能性。
