ArticleJournal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology2019
Not just going with the flow: foraging ants attend to polarised light even while on the pheromone trail.
Article in Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Combining social and private information: How ants use pheromones and learnt cues to navigate.Learning & behavior · 2026Review
- Review
- Comparative use of a polarized light compass for twilight and moonlight navigation in diurnal and nocturnal bull ants.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Article
- An Improved Bio-Orientation Method Based on Direct Sunlight Compensation for Imaging Polarization Sensor.Journal of imaging · 2024Article
- Directed retreat and navigational mechanisms in trail following Formica obscuripes.Learning & behavior · 2024Article
- Route retracing: way pointing and multiple vector memories in trail-following ants.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- Varieties of visual navigation in insects.Animal cognition · 2023Review
- Article
- Role of the pheromone for navigation in the group foraging ant, Veromessor pergandei.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2021Article
- Active Inferants: An Active Inference Framework for Ant Colony Behavior.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The polarisation pattern of skylight serves as an orientation cue for many invertebrates. Solitary foraging ants, in particular, rely on polarised light to orient along with a number of other visual cues. Yet it is unknown, if this cue is actively used in socially foraging species that use pheromone trails to navigate. Here, we explore the use of polarised light in the presence of the pheromone cues of the foraging trail. The desert harvester ant, Veromessor pergandei, relies on pheromone cues and path integration in separate stages of their foraging ecology (column and fan, respectively). Here, we show that foragers actively orient to an altered overhead polarisation pattern, both while navigating individually in the fan and while on the pheromone-based column. These heading changes occurred during twilight, as well as in the early morning and late afternoon before sunset. Differences in shift size indicate that foragers attend to both the polarisation pattern and the sun's position when available, yet during twilight, headings are dominated by the polarisation pattern. Finally, when the sun's position was experimentally blocked before sunset, shift sizes increased similar to twilight testing. These findings show that celestial cues provide directional information on the pheromone trail.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.