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Ants’ learning of nest entrance characteristics (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2013

M.-C. Cammaerts
M.-C. Cammaerts*
Affiliation:
Faculté des Sciences, DBO, CP 160/12, Université libre de Bruxelles, 50, A. F. Roosevelt, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium
*
Author for correspondence Phone: +02 673 49 69 Fax: +32 2 650 24 45 E-mail: mtricot@ulb.ac.be
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Abstract

Young workers, experimentally removed from their nest and set in front of it, are not very good at finding the nest entrance and entering the nest. I examined how young ants learn their nest entrance characteristics, dealing only with the entrance sensu stricto, not with its vicinity. I observed that young ants have the innate behavior of trying to exit and re-enter their nest. I found that they are imprinted with the nest entrance odor while they are still living inside their nest and that they learn the visual aspect of their nest entrances, thanks to operant conditioning, when they exit their nest and succeed in re-entering in the course of their first short trips outside.

Keywords

imprintingMyrmica rubraontogenesisoperant conditioning
Type
Research Paper
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 104 , Issue 1 , February 2014 , pp. 29 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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