Learning walks and landmark guidance in wood ants (Formica rufa)

Abstract

We have examined a behaviour pattern in wood ants which in some respects resembles and in other respects differs from the learning flights of bees and wasps. Wood ants returning to their nest from a newly discovered food source turn back and look at landmarks near to the feeder, but the feeder itself does not attract sustained fixations. The frequency of landmark inspections is highest when the ant is close to the feeder and falls as the ant moves away. In common with learning flights, inspections of landmarks on departure become less frequent as ants become familiar with their surroundings and reappear after a long interval without foraging. A principal difference between the learning flights of wasps and bees and this putative learning behaviour in ants is the emphasis that ants place on landmark fixation. Ants and honeybees move differently when searching for a goal within an array of transformed landmarks. We have explored, using computer simulation, whether this difference can be explained by the prominence ants give to the matching of landmarks viewed in the frontal visual field.