%0 Journal Article
%T Trail following Learning by Young Myrmica rubra Workers (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)
%A Marie-Claire Cammaerts
%J ISRN Entomology
%D 2013
%R 10.1155/2013/792891
%X Ants use chemical trails, laid down on the ground, for recruiting congeners and helping them to return to the nest. The present work shows that young ants, less than one year old, though obviously reacting to the trail pheromone, are unable to efficiently follow a trail. These young ants begin to better walk along a trail when being in presence of trail following older congeners. Later on, they can by themselves rather efficiently follow a trail. Queens removed from their nest correctly move along a trail. The knowledge of the trail pheromone is thus native, while the trail following behavior is both partly native and partly learned. The latter learning is rapid and may be induced and/or enhanced by older trail following nestmates. 1. Introduction An ant colony has a highly structured social organization. The individuals perform many complex tasks such as caring of the brood and queens, foraging and navigating on their area, collecting food, recruiting congeners, defending the colony, relocating the nest, and building a nest [1]. Such a social life is regulated by chemical, visual, tactile, and acoustic signals such as an alarm pheromone [2], area marking substances [3¨C5], a trail pheromone [6], individual cuticular odors [7], learned visual elements [8¨C10], antennal contacts [11], and sounds [12]. Recently, we observed that young ants, about 3 months old, know none of these signals and cannot accomplish any social tasks (returning to their nest, entering the nest, using the trail pheromone, making a trophalaxy, and so on [13]). So, after having largely studied the know-how of ant foragers [14], we actually aimed to examine how young ants acquire all these cognitive abilities. It has already been proved that young ants early know their nest odor thanks to habituation and/or imprinting [15]. Working on the species Myrmica rubra (Linnaeus, 1758), we showed that young workers become imprinted to their nest entrance odor and learn thereafter, thanks to operant conditioning, the visual aspects of such entrances [16]. Young M. rubra workers were also proved to be quickly imprinted to their specific foraging area odor in the course of their first outside trip [17]. We know that foragers learn, thanks to operant conditioning, different olfactory and visual elements which surround their nest and allow them to negotiate their way while foraging (references here above). But how do young ants learn the trail pheromone odor and trail following behavior? In the ant species M. rubra, this pheromone is elaborated in the workersĄŻ poison gland [18] and is not emitted
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.entomology/2013/792891/