Visual navigation: properties, acquisition and use of views

Zeil, Jochen

doi:10.1007/s00359-022-01599-2

Cited by 20 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 117 publications

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“…Furthermore, no cues other than visual are necessary for the precise pinpointing of the burrow location. The results reported here support the hypothesis of van Iersel and van den Assem [ 10 ] that homing digger wasps use distant and local visual cues simultaneously in order to find their burrows and are in full agreement with recent experimental and modelling evidence on the visual information used by insects when pinpointing goals (reviewed in [ 65 ]).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Digger wasps Microbembex monodonta SAY (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae) rely exclusively on visual cues when pinpointing their nest entrances

Cormons¹,

Zeil

2023

PLoS ONE

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The ability of insects to navigate and home is crucial to fundamental tasks, such as pollination, parental care, procuring food, and finding mates. Despite recent advances in our understanding of visual homing in insects, it remains unclear exactly how ground-nesting Hymenoptera are able to precisely locate their often inconspicuous or hidden reproductive burrow entrances. Here we show that the ground-nesting wasp Microbembex monodonta locates her hidden burrow entrance with the help of local landmarks, but only if their view of the wider panorama is not blocked. Moreover, the wasps are able to pinpoint the burrow location to within a few centimeters when potential olfactory, tactile and auditory cues are locally masked. We conclude that M. monodonta locate their hidden burrows relying exclusively on local visual cues in the context of the wider panorama. We discuss these results in the light of the older and more recent literature on nest recognition and homing in insects.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Digger wasps Microbembex monodonta SAY (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae) rely exclusively on visual cues when pinpointing their nest entrances

Cormons¹,

Zeil

2023

PLoS ONE

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“…Similarly, they could be using their magnetic sense to perceive the Earth’s magnetic field ( 11 ), an even more stable compass cue. Meanwhile, the moths could be taking snapshots of the terrestrial—and possibly celestial—panorama (as suggested for dung beetles, 45 ), which they could later use to help them navigate at the start of their return migration to their breeding grounds, akin to learning flights performed by other insects ( 46 ). It is very likely that these various compass cues are integrated together and that evening flights are used by Bogong moths to calibrate multi-sensory internal compasses which they eventually use for their return migration.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Camera-based automated monitoring of flying insects in the wild (Camfi). II. flight behaviour and long-term population monitoring of migratory Bogong moths in Alpine Australia

Wallace,

Dreyer,

Reber

et al. 2023

Front. Insect Sci.

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IntroductionThe Bogong moth Agrotis infusa is well known for its remarkable annual round-trip migration from its breeding grounds across eastern and southern Australia to its aestivation sites in the Australian Alps, to which it provides an important annual influx of nutrients. Over recent years, we have benefited from a growing understanding of the navigational abilities of the Bogong moth. Meanwhile, the population of Bogong moths has been shrinking. Recently, the ecologically and culturally important Bogong moth was listed as endangered by the IUCN Red List, and the establishment of a program for long-term monitoring of its population has been identified as critical for its conservation.MethodsHere, we present the results of two years of monitoring of the Bogong moth population in the Australian Alps using recently developed methods for automated wildlife-camera monitoring of flying insects, named Camfi. While in the Alps, some moths emerge from the caves in the evening to undertake seemingly random flights, filling the air with densities in the dozens per cubic metre. The purpose of these flights is unknown, but they may serve an important role in Bogong moth navigation.ResultsWe found that these evening flights occur throughout summer and are modulated by daily weather factors. We present a simple heuristic model of the arrival to and departure from aestivation sites by Bogong moths, and confirm results obtained from fox-scat surveys which found that aestivating Bogong moths occupy higher elevations as the summer progresses. Moreover, by placing cameras along two elevational transects below the summit of Mt. Kosciuszko, we found that evening flights were not random, but were systematically oriented in directions relative to the azimuth of the summit of the mountain. Finally, we present the first recorded observations of the impact of bushfire smoke on aestivating Bogong moths – a dramatic reduction in the size of a cluster of aestivating Bogong moths during the fire, and evidence of a large departure from the fire-affected area the day after the fire.DiscussionOur results highlight the challenges of monitoring Bogong moths in the wild and support the continued use of automated camera-based methods for that purpose.

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“…The lack of effect of caffeine during the nestward journey, paired with the fact that foodward journey durations were an order of magnitude slower than nestward journey durations, suggests different navigational mechanisms are being selectively used throughout the foraging journey. Path integration, being innate, constantly active, and not requiring learning of the surrounding landscape (Zeil, Narendra & Stürzl, 2014; Zeil, 2022), is likely to be extremely accurate under relatively short distances such as the ones travelled in the open landscape (Heinze, Narendra & Cheung, 2018). It is thus likely to be the main mechanism used during the nestward journey, albeit paired with a learnt component, as nestward journey duration did improve over consecutive visits.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acute exposure to caffeine improves navigation in an invasive ant

Galante,

De Agrò,

Koch

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Invasive alien species are a major and growing problem, devastating ecosystems and costing billions of euros in damage and control efforts. Argentine ants, Linepithema humile, are particularly concerning, with control efforts often falling short likely due to a lack of sufficient bait consumption. Using neuroactives to manipulate ant navigation and learning could increase recruitment and consumption, ultimately leading to more efficient control strategies. Caffeine is naturally occurring, cheap, and has been found to cause motivational and cognitive improvements in bees. Here, we subject L. humile to a wide range of caffeine concentrations and a complex but ecologically relevant task: an open landscape foraging experiment. Without caffeine, we find no effect of consecutive foraging visits on the time the ants take to reach a reward, suggesting a failure to learn the reward's location. However, low (25ppm) to intermediate (250ppm) concentrations of caffeine lead to a decrease of up to 38% in the time taken to find the reward during each consecutive visit, implying that caffeine boosts learning. Interestingly, such improvements are lost at high (2000ppm) doses. In contrast, caffeine appears to have no impact on the ants' homing behaviour, as the time required to reach the nest was similar across treatments. The effect of caffeine is thus not only dose-dependent, but also differentially targets neurologically distinct navigational mechanisms. Adding moderate levels of caffeine to baits could be a simple way to improve ant's ability to learn its location, potentially leading to increased recruitment to, and consumption of, the toxicant.

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Visual navigation: properties, acquisition and use of views

Cited by 20 publications

References 117 publications

Digger wasps Microbembex monodonta SAY (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae) rely exclusively on visual cues when pinpointing their nest entrances

Digger wasps Microbembex monodonta SAY (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae) rely exclusively on visual cues when pinpointing their nest entrances

Camera-based automated monitoring of flying insects in the wild (Camfi). II. flight behaviour and long-term population monitoring of migratory Bogong moths in Alpine Australia

Acute exposure to caffeine improves navigation in an invasive ant

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