Nest excavators’ learning walks in the Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti

Abstract

The Australian red honey ant, Melophorus bagoti, stands out as the most thermophilic ant in Australia, engaging in all outdoor activities during the hottest periods of the day during summer months. This species of desert ants often navigates by means of path integration and learning landmark cues around the nest. In our study, we observed the outdoor activities of M. bagoti workers engaged in nest excavation, the maintenance of the nest structure, primarily by taking excess sand out of the nest. Before undertaking nest excavation, the ants conducted a single exploratory walk. Following their initial learning expedition, these ants then engaged in nest excavation activities. Consistent with previous findings on pre-foraging learning walks, after just one learning walk, the desert ants in our study demonstrated the ability to return home from locations 2 m away from the nest, although not from locations 4 m away. These findings indicate that even for activities like dumping excavated sand within a range of 5–10 cm outside the nest, these ants learn and utilize the visual landmark panorama around the nest.

Neophobic response of bull ants (Myrmecia midas) to odours introduced on their foraging route

“…Bull ants, for example, are skilled in recognising their environments, the route to a foraging tree to locate food sources, and the way back to their nest (Freas et al, 2017;Narendra et al, 2013).Navigating ants use multiple strategies (Wehner, 2008(Wehner, , 2020, including path integration (PI) (Collett and Collett, 2000;Wehner and Srinivasan, 2003) and learned panorama cues (Collett et al, 2006;Collett, 2012;Freas et al 2019;Schultheiss et al, 2016;Wehner, 2003;Wystrach et al 2011;Zeil and Fleischmann 2019). Visual panoramas are thought to be learned by performing learning walks, widely observed behaviours in desert ant genera such as Cataglyphis (Fleischmann et al, 2016;Wehner et al, 2004), Ocymyrmex (Müller and Wehner, 2010), and Melophorus (Deeti and Cheng, 2021;Deeti et al, 2024a). Laerning walks are not exclusive to arid environments, as they are also exhibited by non-desert ant species such as Myrmecia bull ants (Jayatilaka et al, 2018) and Formica wood ants (Nicholson et al, 1999).…”

Neophobic response of bull ants (Myrmecia midas) to odours introduced on their foraging route

“…Bull ants, for example, are skilled in recognising their environments, the route to a foraging tree to locate food sources, and the way back to their nest (Freas et al, 2017;Narendra et al, 2013).Navigating ants use multiple strategies (Wehner, 2008(Wehner, , 2020, including path integration (PI) (Collett and Collett, 2000;Wehner and Srinivasan, 2003) and learned panorama cues (Collett et al, 2006;Collett, 2012;Freas et al 2019;Schultheiss et al, 2016;Wehner, 2003;Wystrach et al 2011;Zeil and Fleischmann 2019). Visual panoramas are thought to be learned by performing learning walks, widely observed behaviours in desert ant genera such as Cataglyphis (Fleischmann et al, 2016;Wehner et al, 2004), Ocymyrmex (Müller and Wehner, 2010), and Melophorus (Deeti and Cheng, 2021;Deeti et al, 2024a). Laerning walks are not exclusive to arid environments, as they are also exhibited by non-desert ant species such as Myrmecia bull ants (Jayatilaka et al, 2018) and Formica wood ants (Nicholson et al, 1999).…”

“…Straightness ranges from 0 to 1, with larger values indicating straighter paths, while smaller values indicate more curved or convoluted paths. Sinuosity assesses the degree of waviness or curvature in an ant's path as it navigates away from the nest(Batschelet 1981;Deeti et al 2023aDeeti et al , 2024a. A higher sinuosity value indicates a more convoluted path, while a lower value indicates a straighter path.…”