TY - JOUR

T1 - Spatial cognition in the context of foraging styles and information transfer in ants

AU - Reznikova, Zhanna

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2020, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature. Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2020/11

Y1 - 2020/11

N2 - Ants are central-place foragers: they always return to the nest, and this requires the ability to remember relationships between features of the environment, or an individual’s path through the landscape. The distribution of these cognitive responsibilities within a colony depends on a species’ foraging style. Solitary foraging as well as leader-scouting, which is based on information transmission about a distant targets from scouts to foragers, can be considered the most challenging tasks in the context of ants’ spatial cognition. Solitary foraging is found in species of almost all subfamilies of ants, whereas leader-scouting has been discovered as yet only in the Formica rufa group of species (red wood ants). Solitary foraging and leader-scouting ant species, although enormously different in their levels of sociality and ecological specificities, have many common traits of individual cognitive navigation, such as the primary use of visual navigation, excellent visual landmark memories, and the subordinate role of odour orientation. In leader-scouting species, spatial cognition and the ability to transfer information about a distant target dramatically differ among scouts and foragers, suggesting individual cognitive specialization. I suggest that the leader-scouting style of recruitment is closely connected with the ecological niche of a defined group of species, in particular, their searching patterns within the tree crown. There is much work to be done to understand what cognitive mechanisms underpin route planning and communication about locations in ants.

AB - Ants are central-place foragers: they always return to the nest, and this requires the ability to remember relationships between features of the environment, or an individual’s path through the landscape. The distribution of these cognitive responsibilities within a colony depends on a species’ foraging style. Solitary foraging as well as leader-scouting, which is based on information transmission about a distant targets from scouts to foragers, can be considered the most challenging tasks in the context of ants’ spatial cognition. Solitary foraging is found in species of almost all subfamilies of ants, whereas leader-scouting has been discovered as yet only in the Formica rufa group of species (red wood ants). Solitary foraging and leader-scouting ant species, although enormously different in their levels of sociality and ecological specificities, have many common traits of individual cognitive navigation, such as the primary use of visual navigation, excellent visual landmark memories, and the subordinate role of odour orientation. In leader-scouting species, spatial cognition and the ability to transfer information about a distant target dramatically differ among scouts and foragers, suggesting individual cognitive specialization. I suggest that the leader-scouting style of recruitment is closely connected with the ecological niche of a defined group of species, in particular, their searching patterns within the tree crown. There is much work to be done to understand what cognitive mechanisms underpin route planning and communication about locations in ants.

KW - Ants

KW - Communication

KW - Leader-scouting

KW - Memory

KW - Navigation

KW - Solitary foraging

KW - Spatial cognition

KW - HYMENOPTERA

KW - LANDMARK GUIDANCE

KW - WOOD ANTS

KW - SOCIAL PARASITISM

KW - LEARNING WALKS

KW - NUMERICAL COMPETENCE

KW - FORMICA-JAPONICA

KW - DESERT ANTS

KW - COMMUNICATION-SYSTEM

KW - NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS

KW - Cognition

KW - Orientation

KW - Animals

KW - Social Behavior

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85089828060&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10071-020-01423-x

DO - 10.1007/s10071-020-01423-x

M3 - Review article

C2 - 32840698

AN - SCOPUS:85089828060

VL - 23

SP - 1143

EP - 1159

JO - Animal Cognition

JF - Animal Cognition

SN - 1435-9448

IS - 6

ER -