Turning the tables

Here is a really nice experiment which uses a clever design to investigate cue arbitration in garden ants. Individuals walk onto a circular table guided by a pheromone trail. The table rotates and the ant has to choose between following the trail and following the learned visual cues. What plays out is an interesting “dance” as the ant tries to follow both pheromone cues and the visual cues. When the turntable has rotated 180degrees the ant is happy to complete the path as the pheromone and visual cues are aligned once more.

The videos are really really cool:

http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/3/1/150426.figures-only

Minoura M, Sonoda K, Sakiyama T, Gunji Y-P. 2016 Rotating panoramic view: interaction between visual and olfactory cues in ants.R. Soc. open sci. 3: 150426. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150426