Cataglyphis fortis
| Cataglyphis fortis | |
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| Species: | C. fortis
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| Binomial name | |
| Cataglyphis fortis (Forel, 1902)
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Cataglyphis fortis is a species of ant in the genus Cataglyphis.[1] Found in Tunisia, the ants inhabit salt pans where they forage dead arthropods.[2]
Measuring the sun's angle
This ant ventures far from its burrow in the Sahara Desert, which has almost no identifiable features. While venturing out it periodically takes measurements of its angle in respect to the Sun. By doing this the ant can venture far from its nest in search of food. Because of the blistering heat, it can only do this for about 3–5 minutes/day (the hottest time of the day, when all its predators are in hiding from the sun). When the ant finds a dead insect it then looks at the sun and because of its periodic references to the sun's angle it knows exactly what the shortest route back to the nest is. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology have also verified that desert microhabitats have unique odour signatures that can guide the ants back to the nest.[3]
This skill, which has also been observed in the behavior of foraging honey bees, is elemental to the survival of this species of ant under the harsh conditions in which it lives. This behavior allows Cataglyphis to travel farther from its nest than any other creature that lives in the Sahara, with respect to size.[citation needed]
Pedometer
The ant appears to use an internal pedometer to count its steps in a harsh environment where odors quickly vanish, enabling it to "count back" to its nest.[4] When stilts were glued on to the ants legs, they overshot the distance of their nests, while ants with cut legs traveled short of their nest. It's suspected that while the ants unlikely have the brainpower to literally count steps, they are somehow doing it intuitively.[5]
References
- ^ Bolton, B. (2015). "Cataglyphis fortis". AntCat. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
- ^ Steck, K.; Hansson, B. S.; Knaden, M. (2009). "Smells like home: Desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, use olfactory landmarks to pinpoint the nest". Frontiers in Zoology. 6: 5. doi:10.1186/1742-9994-6-5. PMC 2651142. PMID 19250516.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link) - ^ Steck, K.; Hansson, B. S.; Knaden, M. (2009). "Smells like home: Desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, use olfactory landmarks to pinpoint the nest". Frontiers in Zoology. 6: 5. doi:10.1186/1742-9994-6-5. PMC 2651142. PMID 19250516.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link) - ^ Khamsi, Roxanne (29 June 2006). "Ants use pedometers to find home". New Scientist. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
- ^ Wittlinger, Matthias; Wehner, Rüdiger; Wolf, Harald (2007-01-15). "The desert ant odometer: a stride integrator that accounts for stride length and walking speed". Journal of Experimental Biology. 210 (2): 198–207. doi:10.1242/jeb.02657. ISSN 0022-0949. PMID 17210957.
External links
Media related to Cataglyphis fortis at Wikimedia Commons
