Heyman, Y., Vilk, Y., & Feinerman, O. (2019). Ants use multiple spatial memories and chemical pointers to navigate their nest. iScience.

Highlights
• Heyman et al. combine multiple technologies to study how ants navigate within their dark nest

• Ants substitute visual cues with gravity, chemical cues, and multi-target memories

• Following a catastrophe, ants quickly readjust the relative importance of cues

Fig. source: Heyman, Y. et al. 2019

Summary

Animal navigation relies on the available environmental cues and, where present, visual cues typically dominate. While much is known about vision-assisted navigation, knowledge of navigation in the dark is scarce.

Here, Heyman et al. combine individual tracking, dynamic modular nest structures, and spatially resolved chemical profiling to study how Camponotus fellah ants navigate within the dark labyrinth of their nest. 

They find that, contrary to ant navigation above ground, underground navigation cannot rely on long-range information. This limitation emphasizes the ants’ capabilities associated with other navigational strategies.

Indeed, apart from gravity, underground navigation relies on self-referenced memories of multiple locations and on socially generated chemical cues placed at decision points away from the target.

Moreover, the ants quickly readjust the weights attributed to these information sources in response to environmental changes.

Generally, studying well-known behaviors in a variety of environmental contexts holds the potential of revealing new insights into animal cognition.

For further info, please read the paper Heyman, Y. et al. 2019.

Heyman, Y., Vilk, Y., & Feinerman, O. (2019). Ants use multiple spatial memories and chemical pointers to navigate their nest. iScience.