Guest guest Posted November 17, 2005 Report Share Posted November 17, 2005 Hi All, See the popular press report and abstract of the paper that is pdf-available and suggests that ants that are fed return to their hives, whereas ants that are CRed forage for food. http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/11/16/ants-051117.html Empty stomach, visual memory guides ants to food Last Updated Wed, 16 Nov 2005 19:47:44 EST CBC News Ants use visual cues to find food when hungry and to return to the nest when full, researchers have found. ... Nature 438, 302 (17 November 2005) Ant navigation: Priming of visual route memories A. , Hempel de Ibarra, Graham and S. Collett Ants travelling to and fro between their nest and a foraging area may follow stereotyped foodward and homeward routes that are guided by different visual and directional memory sequences1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Honeybees are known to fly a feeder-to-hive or hive-to-feeder vector according to whether or not they have recently fed — their feeding state controls which compass direction they select7. We show here that the feeding state of the wood ant Formica rufa also determines the choice between an outward or inward journey, but by priming the selective retrieval of visual landmark memories. Al Pater, PhD; email: old542000@... __________________________________ - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005 http://mail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.