... one of the proposed two strategies was chosen for each of our sample species, despite the fact that a combined strategy could have reduced the animal's risk of toppling over even more. We found that Cataglyphis desert ants (species Cataglyphis fortis ) maintained their upright posture primarily...

... altered. Cataglyphis Desert ants Homing Navigation Insect memory Insect learning Solitary foraging desert ants are expert navigators that seek and retrieve food morsels under extreme heat conditions. When foragers locate a bountiful food source they will shuttle rapidly back and forth...

... present here detailed information about the paths of Cataglyphis fortis desert ants navigating by an innate strategy, namely path integration. Firstly, we observed that the ants' walking speed decreases significantly along their homing paths, such that they slow down just before reaching the goal...

... navigation errors. REFERENCES Cheng K. , Wehner R. ( 2002 ). Navigating desert ants (Cataglyphis fortis) learn to alter their search patterns on their homebound journey . Physiol. Entomol. 27 , 285 – 290 . Cheng K. , Narendra A. , Wehner R. ( 2006 ). Behavioral...

...Fleur Lebhardt; Julja Koch; Bernhard Ronacher SUMMARY Desert ants, Cataglyphis , use the sky's pattern of polarized light as a compass reference for navigation. However, they do not fully exploit the complexity of this pattern, rather – as proposed previously – they assess their walking direction...

...Kathrin Steck; Matthias Wittlinger; Harald Wolf SUMMARY Desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, use a stride integrator as a distance gauge in their well-studied path integration system (while a skylight compass provides the direction gauge). To further scrutinize the mechanisms of the ant odometer, we...

...Doreen Heß; Julja Koch; Bernhard Ronacher SUMMARY On their foraging excursions, desert ants ( Cataglyphis fortis )navigate by means of path integration, exhibiting high precision even in undulating terrain. To avoid errors in their home vector the ants must measure the slopes of ascents...

...Tobias Merkle; Rüdiger Wehner SUMMARY This study deals with the influence landmark information has on the foraging behaviour of the desert ant, Cataglyphis fortis , especially with the interaction of such landmark information with the ants' path integration system. We show in the first experiment...

..., the insect may weight either source more heavily depending on the navigational context and the animal's motivational state. Here we studied the effects of a displaced nest mark on the homing performances of Cataglyphis ants. Foragers were trained to shuttle between the nest, which was marked by a black...

...-dimensional (3-D) path integration of the(formicine) desert ant, Cataglyphis fortis . Cataglyphis judge the ground distance when travelling over hills, allowing correct homing even in (unpredictably) uneven terrain. We eliminated the function of these hair sensors in graviception either by shaving the hairs...

...Matthias Wittlinger; Rüdiger Wehner; Harald Wolf SUMMARY Desert ants, Cataglyphis , use path integration as a major means of navigation. Path integration requires measurement of two parameters, namely,direction and distance of travel. Directional information is provided by a celestial compass...

...B. Ronacher; E. Westwig; R. Wehner SUMMARY When performing foraging trips desert ants of the genus Cataglyphis continuously process and update a `home vector' that enables them to return to their nest on the shortest route. This capacity of path integration requires two types of information: (i...

...Christoph P. E. Zollikofer; Rüdiger Wehner; Tsukasa Fukushi ABSTRACT This study examines the effects of body size variation on the optical properties of the compound eyes of visually guided desert ants belonging to the genus Cataglyphis . Although linear head size may vary by a factor of 2 within...