Magnetoreception in Hymenoptera: importance for navigation

Fleischmann, Pauline N.; Grob, Robin; Rößler, Wolfgang

doi:10.1007/s10071-020-01431-x

Cited by 31 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…Experienced honeybees use the landmark panorama for re-calibrating the movement of celestial compass cues [ 49 , 50 ]. Since naive C. nodus use a magnetic compass during initial LW [ 8 ], our hypothesis is that the earth's magnetic field provides the geostable reference system with which the solar ephemeris is initially calibrated [ 3 , 8 , 51 ]. This would allow the ants to calibrate the celestial compass and to learn the landmark panorama simultaneously during initial LW.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rotation of skylight polarization during learning walks is necessary to trigger neuronal plasticity inCataglyphisants

et al. 2022

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Many animals use celestial cues for impressive navigational performances in challenging habitats. Since the position of the sun and associated skylight cues change throughout the day and season, it is crucial to correct for these changes. Cataglyphis desert ants possess a time-compensated skylight compass allowing them to navigate back to their nest using the shortest way possible. The ants have to learn the sun's daily course (solar ephemeris) during initial learning walks (LW) before foraging. This learning phase is associated with substantial structural changes in visual neuronal circuits of the ant's brain. Here, we test whether the rotation of skylight polarization during LWs is the necessary cue to induce learning-dependent rewiring in synaptic circuits in high-order integration centres of the ant brain. Our results show that structural neuronal changes in the central complex and mushroom bodies are triggered only when LWs were performed under a rotating skylight polarization pattern. By contrast, when naive ants did not perform LWs, but were exposed to skylight cues, plasticity was restricted to light spectrum-dependent changes in synaptic complexes of the lateral complex. The results identify sky-compass cues triggering learning-dependent versus -independent neuronal plasticity during the behavioural transition from interior workers to outdoor foragers.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rotation of skylight polarization during learning walks is necessary to trigger neuronal plasticity inCataglyphisants

et al. 2022

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“…Desert ants forage hundreds of meters away from their nest in landscapes sometimes entirely bereft of visual landmarks ( Wehner, 2020 ). Both insects preferentially make use of the most reliable visual cues, such as polarized skylight, but can also make use of an arsenal of backups to ensure a robust compass signal, including windflow ( Müller and Wehner, 2007 ) and magnetoreception ( Collett and Baron, 1994 ; Fleischmann et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A projectome of the bumblebee central complex

Sayre¹,

Templin²,

Chavez

et al. 2021

eLife

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Insects have evolved diverse and remarkable strategies for navigating in various ecologies all over the world. Regardless of species, insects share the presence of a group of morphologically conserved neuropils known collectively as the central complex (CX). The CX is a navigational center, involved in sensory integration and coordinated motor activity. Despite the fact that our understanding of navigational behavior comes predominantly from ants and bees, most of what we know about the underlying neural circuitry of such behavior comes from work in fruit flies. Here we aim to close this gap, by providing the first comprehensive map of all major columnar neurons and their projection patterns in the CX of a bee. We find numerous components of the circuit that appear to be highly conserved between the fly and the bee, but also highlight several key differences which are likely to have important functional rami1cations.

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“…The multimodal nature of the JO makes it a suitable candidate to play a crucial role during learning walks. In addition, the insect antennae have been suggested as a potential site for magnetoreception (de Oliveira et al, 2010; Guerra, Gegear, & Reppert, 2014; Lucano, Cernicchiaro, Wajnberg, & Esquivel, 2006), which renders the antenna and potentially the JO as one candidate in the search for the insect magnetic compass (Fleischmann, Grob, & Rössler, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Johnston's organ and its central projections in Cataglyphis desert ants

Grob

Tritscher

Grübel

et al. 2020

J of Comparative Neurology

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The Johnston's organ (JO) in the insect antenna is a multisensory organ involved in several navigational tasks including wind-compass orientation, flight control, graviception, and, possibly, magnetoreception. Here we investigate the three dimensional anatomy of the JO and its neuronal projections into the brain of the desert ant Cataglyphis, a marvelous long-distance navigator. The JO of C. nodus workers consists of 40 scolopidia comprising three sensory neurons each. The numbers of scolopidia slightly vary between different sexes (female/male) and castes (worker/queen). Individual scolopidia attach to the intersegmental membrane between pedicel and flagellum of the antenna and line up in a ring-like organization. Three JO nerves project along the two antennal nerve branches into the brain. Anterograde double staining of the antennal afferents revealed that JO receptor neurons project to several distinct neuropils in the central brain. The T5 tract projects into the antennal mechanosensory and motor center (AMMC), while the T6 tract bypasses the AMMC via the saddle and forms collaterals terminating in the posterior slope (PS) (T6I), the ventral complex (T6II), and the ventrolateral protocerebrum (T6III). Double labeling of JO and ocellar afferents revealed that input from the JO and visual information from the ocelli converge in tight apposition in the PS. The general JO anatomy and its central projection patterns resemble situations in honeybees and Drosophila. The multisensory nature of the JO together with its projections to multisensory neuropils in the ant brain likely serves synchronization and calibration of different sensory modalities during the ontogeny of navigation in Cataglyphis.

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Magnetoreception in Hymenoptera: importance for navigation

Cited by 31 publications

References 68 publications

Rotation of skylight polarization during learning walks is necessary to trigger neuronal plasticity inCataglyphisants

Rotation of skylight polarization during learning walks is necessary to trigger neuronal plasticity inCataglyphisants

A projectome of the bumblebee central complex

Johnston's organ and its central projections in Cataglyphis desert ants

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