ArticleThe Journal of experimental biology2021
Learning walks in an Australian desert ant, Melophorus bagoti.
Article in The Journal of experimental biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Magnetoreception in Cataglyphis hellenica ants.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Article
- A Vector-Based Computational Model of Multimodal Insect Learning Walks.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Phobic responses of bull ants (Myrmecia midas) to odours introduced on their foraging route.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2025Article
- Ant visual route navigation: How the fine details of behaviour promote successful route performance and convergence.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Route learning and transport of resources during colony relocation in Australian desert ants.Learning & behavior · 2025Article
- Desert ants (Melophorus bagoti) oscillate and scan more in navigation when the visual scene changes.Animal cognition · 2025Article
- Desert Ant (Insects · 2024Article
- Nest excavators' learning walks in the Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti.Animal cognition · 2024Article
- Unbalanced visual cues do not affect search precision at the nest in desert ants (Cataglyphis nodus).Learning & behavior · 2024Article
- Effect of repetition of vertical and horizontal routes on navigation performance in Australian bull ants.Learning & behavior · 2024Article
- The role of learning-walk related multisensory experience in rewiring visual circuits in the desert ant brain.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2023Review
- Comparative biology of spatial navigation in three arachnid orders (Amblypygi, Araneae, and Scorpiones).Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2023Review
- Scanning behaviour in ants: an interplay between random-rate processes and oscillators.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2023Article
- Visual navigation: properties, acquisition and use of views.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2023Review
- An 'instinct for learning': the learning flights and walks of bees, wasps and ants from the 1850s to now.The Journal of experimental biology · 2023Article
- What view information is most important in the homeward navigation of an Australian bull ant, Myrmecia midas?Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2022Article
- Evidence of learning walks related to scorpion home burrow navigation.The Journal of experimental biology · 2022Article
- Oscillators and servomechanisms in orientation and navigation, and sometimes in cognition.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Review
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The central Australian ant Melophorus bagoti is the most thermophilic ant in Australia and forages solitarily in the summer months during the hottest period of the day. For successful navigation, desert ants of many species are known to integrate a path and learn landmark cues around the nest. Ants perform a series of exploratory walks around the nest before their first foraging trip, during which they are presumed to learn about their landmark panorama. Here, we studied 15 naive M. bagoti ants transitioning from indoor work to foraging outside the nest. In 3-4 consecutive days, they performed 3-7 exploratory walks before heading off to forage. Naive ants increased the area of exploration around the nest and the duration of trips over successive learning walks. In their first foraging walk, the majority of the ants followed a direction explored on their last learning walk. During learning walks, the ants stopped and performed stereotypical orientation behaviours called pirouettes. They performed complete body rotations with stopping phases as well as small circular walks without stops known as voltes. After just one learning walk, these desert ants could head in the home direction from locations 2 m from the nest, although not from locations 4 m from the nest. These results suggest gradual learning of the visual landmark panorama around the foragers' nest. Our observations show that M. bagoti exhibit similar characteristics in their learning walks to other desert ants of the genera Ocymyrmex and Cataglyphis.
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