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Bonato B, Simonetti V, Guerra S, Castiello U. Artificial and biological supports are different for pea plants. PLANT SIGNALING & BEHAVIOR 2024; 19:2355739. [PMID: 38837041 PMCID: PMC7616103 DOI: 10.1080/15592324.2024.2355739] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2024] [Accepted: 05/08/2024] [Indexed: 06/06/2024]
Abstract
Previous studies on the kinematics of pea plants' ascent and attach behavior have demonstrated that the signature of their movement varies depending on the kind of support. So far, these studies have been confined to artificial supports (e.g. wooden sticks). Little is known regarding the conditions under which pea plants could rely on biological supports (e.g. neighboring plants) for climbing toward the light. In this study, we capitalize on the 3D kinematic analysis of movement to ascertain whether pea plants scale their kinematics differently depending on whether they aim for artificial or biological support. Results suggest that biological support determines a smoother and more accurate behavior than that elicited by the artificial one. These results shed light on pea plants' ability to detect and classify the properties of objects and implement a movement plan attuned to the very nature of the support. We contend that such differences depend on the augmented multisensory experience elicited by the biological support.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bianca Bonato
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | | | - Silvia Guerra
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Umberto Castiello
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
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Chandak P, Chakraborti U, Annagiri S. Using pupae as appetitive reinforcement to study visual and tactile associative learning in the Ponerine ant Diacamma indicum. Sci Rep 2023; 13:15609. [PMID: 37731033 PMCID: PMC10511714 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-42439-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2023] [Accepted: 09/10/2023] [Indexed: 09/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Associative learning is of great importance to animals, as it enhances their ability to navigate, forage, evade predation and improve fitness. Even though associative learning abilities of Hymenopterans have been explored, many of these studies offered food as appetitive reinforcement. In the current study, we focus on tactile and visual cue learning in an ant Diacamma indicum using a Y-maze setup with pupa as a positive reinforcement. Using pupa as a reward resulted in a significantly higher proportion of ants completing the training in a shorter time as compared to using food as reinforcement. Ants spent significantly more time in the conditioned arm for both visual cues (white dots or black dots) and tactile cues (rough or smooth surfaces) presented on the floor when associated with pupa, thus showing that they were capable of associative learning. On encountering a conflict between visual and tactile cues during the test, ants chose to spend significantly more time on the arm with the tactile cues indicating that they had made a stronger association between pupa and the tactile cue as compared to the visual cue during training. Using pupa as an ecologically relevant reward, we show that these solitary foraging ants living in small colonies are capable of visual and tactile associative learning and are likely to learn tactile cues over visual cues in association with pupa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Parth Chandak
- Behaviour and Ecology Lab, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohanpur, Kolkata, 741246, India
| | - Udipta Chakraborti
- Behaviour and Ecology Lab, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohanpur, Kolkata, 741246, India
| | - Sumana Annagiri
- Behaviour and Ecology Lab, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohanpur, Kolkata, 741246, India.
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Eckel S, Egelhaaf M, Doussot C. Nest-associated scent marks help bumblebees localizing their nest in visually ambiguous situations. Front Behav Neurosci 2023; 17:1155223. [PMID: 37389203 PMCID: PMC10300278 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1155223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2023] [Accepted: 05/18/2023] [Indexed: 07/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Social insects such as ants and bees are excellent navigators. To manage their daily routines bumblebees, as an example, must learn multiple locations in their environment, like flower patches and their nest. While navigating from one location to another, they mainly rely on vision. Although the environment in which bumblebees live, be it a meadow or a garden, is visually stable overall, it may be prone to changes such as moving shadows or the displacement of an object in the scenery. Therefore, bees might not solely rely on visual cues, but use additional sources of information, forming a multimodal guidance system to ensure their return home to their nest. Here we show that the home-finding behavior of bumblebees, when confronted with a visually ambiguous scenario, is strongly influenced by natural scent marks they deposit at the inconspicuous nest hole when leaving their nest. Bumblebees search for a longer time and target their search with precision at potential nest locations that are visually familiar, if also marked with their natural scent. This finding sheds light on the crucial role of odor in helping bees find their way back to their inconspicuous nest.
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Khaldy L, Foster JJ, Yilmaz A, Belušič G, Gagnon Y, Tocco C, Byrne MJ, Dacke M. The interplay of directional information provided by unpolarised and polarised light in the heading direction network of the diurnal dung beetle Kheper lamarcki. J Exp Biol 2022; 225:274310. [PMID: 35037692 PMCID: PMC8918814 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.243734] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2021] [Accepted: 01/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
The sun is the most prominent source of directional information in the heading direction network of the diurnal, ball-rolling dung beetle Kheper lamarcki. If this celestial body is occluded from the beetle's field of view, the distribution of the relative weight between the directional cues that remain shifts in favour of the celestial pattern of polarised light. In this study, we continue to explore the interplay of the sun and polarisation pattern as directional cues in the heading direction network of K. lamarcki. By systematically altering the intensity and degree of the two cues presented, we effectively change the relative reliability of these directional cues as they appear to the dung beetle. The response of the ball-rolling beetle to these modifications allows us to closely examine how the weighting relationship of these two sources of directional information is influenced and altered in the heading direction network of the beetle. We conclude that the process in which K. lamarcki relies on directional information is very likely done based on Bayesian reasoning, where directional information conveying the highest certainty at a particular moment is afforded the greatest weight.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lana Khaldy
- Lund Vision Group, Department of Biology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 35, 223 62 Lund, Sweden
| | - James J Foster
- Zoology II, Biozentrum, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
| | - Ayse Yilmaz
- Lund Vision Group, Department of Biology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 35, 223 62 Lund, Sweden
| | - Gregor Belušič
- Department of Biology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Yakir Gagnon
- Lund Vision Group, Department of Biology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 35, 223 62 Lund, Sweden
| | - Claudia Tocco
- Lund Vision Group, Department of Biology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 35, 223 62 Lund, Sweden
| | - Marcus J Byrne
- School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witswatersrand, 1 Jan Smuts Avenue, Braamfontein, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa
| | - Marie Dacke
- Lund Vision Group, Department of Biology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 35, 223 62 Lund, Sweden.,School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witswatersrand, 1 Jan Smuts Avenue, Braamfontein, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa
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Franzke M, Kraus C, Dreyer D, Pfeiffer K, Beetz MJ, Stöckl AL, Foster JJ, Warrant EJ, El Jundi B. Spatial orientation based on multiple visual cues in non-migratory monarch butterflies. J Exp Biol 2020; 223:jeb223800. [PMID: 32341174 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.223800] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2020] [Accepted: 04/22/2020] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) are prominent for their annual long-distance migration from North America to their overwintering area in Central Mexico. To find their way on this long journey, they use a sun compass as their main orientation reference but will also adjust their migratory direction with respect to mountain ranges. This indicates that the migratory butterflies also attend to the panorama to guide their travels. Although the compass has been studied in detail in migrating butterflies, little is known about the orientation abilities of non-migrating butterflies. Here, we investigated whether non-migrating butterflies - which stay in a more restricted area to feed and breed - also use a similar compass system to guide their flights. Performing behavioral experiments on tethered flying butterflies in an indoor LED flight simulator, we found that the monarchs fly along straight tracks with respect to a simulated sun. When a panoramic skyline was presented as the only orientation cue, the butterflies maintained their flight direction only during short sequences, suggesting that they potentially use it for flight stabilization. We further found that when we presented the two cues together, the butterflies incorporate both cues in their compass. Taken together, we show here that non-migrating monarch butterflies can combine multiple visual cues for robust orientation, an ability that may also aid them during their migration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Myriam Franzke
- University of Wuerzburg, Biocenter, Zoology II, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
| | - Christian Kraus
- University of Wuerzburg, Biocenter, Zoology II, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
| | - David Dreyer
- Lund University, Department of Biology, Lund Vision Group, 22362 Lund, Sweden
| | - Keram Pfeiffer
- University of Wuerzburg, Biocenter, Zoology II, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
| | - M Jerome Beetz
- University of Wuerzburg, Biocenter, Zoology II, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
| | - Anna L Stöckl
- University of Wuerzburg, Biocenter, Zoology II, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
| | - James J Foster
- Lund University, Department of Biology, Lund Vision Group, 22362 Lund, Sweden
| | - Eric J Warrant
- Lund University, Department of Biology, Lund Vision Group, 22362 Lund, Sweden
| | - Basil El Jundi
- University of Wuerzburg, Biocenter, Zoology II, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
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Multimodal interactions in insect navigation. Anim Cogn 2020; 23:1129-1141. [PMID: 32323027 PMCID: PMC7700066 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01383-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2019] [Revised: 04/02/2020] [Accepted: 04/06/2020] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Animals travelling through the world receive input from multiple sensory modalities that could be important for the guidance of their journeys. Given the availability of a rich array of cues, from idiothetic information to input from sky compasses and visual information through to olfactory and other cues (e.g. gustatory, magnetic, anemotactic or thermal) it is no surprise to see multimodality in most aspects of navigation. In this review, we present the current knowledge of multimodal cue use during orientation and navigation in insects. Multimodal cue use is adapted to a species’ sensory ecology and shapes navigation behaviour both during the learning of environmental cues and when performing complex foraging journeys. The simultaneous use of multiple cues is beneficial because it provides redundant navigational information, and in general, multimodality increases robustness, accuracy and overall foraging success. We use examples from sensorimotor behaviours in mosquitoes and flies as well as from large scale navigation in ants, bees and insects that migrate seasonally over large distances, asking at each stage how multiple cues are combined behaviourally and what insects gain from using different modalities.
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Multi-modal cue integration in the black garden ant. Anim Cogn 2020; 23:1119-1127. [DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01360-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2019] [Revised: 01/29/2020] [Accepted: 02/03/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
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Abstract
South African ball-rolling dung beetles exhibit a unique orientation behavior to avoid competition for food: after forming a piece of dung into a ball, they efficiently escape with it from the dung pile along a straight-line path. To keep track of their heading, these animals use celestial cues, such as the sun, as an orientation reference. Here we show that wind can also be used as a guiding cue for the ball-rolling beetles. We demonstrate that this mechanosensory compass cue is only used when skylight cues are difficult to read, i.e., when the sun is close to the zenith. This raises the question of how the beetles combine multimodal orientation input to obtain a robust heading estimate. To study this, we performed behavioral experiments in a tightly controlled indoor arena. This revealed that the beetles register directional information provided by the sun and the wind and can use them in a weighted manner. Moreover, the directional information can be transferred between these 2 sensory modalities, suggesting that they are combined in the spatial memory network in the beetle's brain. This flexible use of compass cue preferences relative to the prevailing visual and mechanosensory scenery provides a simple, yet effective, mechanism for enabling precise compass orientation at any time of the day.
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Knaden M. Learning and processing of navigational cues in the desert ant. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2019; 54:140-145. [DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2018.10.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2018] [Accepted: 10/04/2018] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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Running paths to nowhere: repetition of routes shows how navigating ants modulate online the weights accorded to cues. Anim Cogn 2019; 22:213-222. [DOI: 10.1007/s10071-019-01236-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2018] [Revised: 01/16/2019] [Accepted: 01/16/2019] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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