caa a22 4500 605542392 CHVBK 20210128100921.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150701xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10071-015-0858-0 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10071-015-0858-0 Nest and food search behaviour in desert ants, Cataglyphis [Elektronische Daten] a critical comparison [Sarah Pfeffer, Siegfried Bolek, Harald Wolf, Matthias Wittlinger] North African desert ants, Cataglyphis, use path integration to calculate a home vector during their foraging trips, constantly informing them about their position relative to the nest. This home vector is also used to find the way back to a productive feeding site the ant has encountered and thus memorized. When the animal fails to arrive at its goal after having run off the home or food vector, a systematic search is initiated. The basic search strategies are identical for nest and food searches, consisting of a search spiral superimposed by a random walk. While nest searches have been investigated in much detail, food site searches have received comparatively little attention. Here, we quantify and compare nest and food site searches recorded under similar conditions, particularly constant nest-feeder distance, and we observe notable differences in nest and food search performances. The parameters of nest searches are relatively constant and improve little with experience, although those small improvements had not been recognized previously. Food searches, by contrast, are more flexible and cover smaller or larger areas, mainly depending on the reliability of food encounter over several visits. Intriguingly, food site searches may be significantly more focussed than nest searches, although the nest should be the most important goal in an ant's life. These results demonstrate both adaptability and high accuracy of the ants' search programme. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2015 Desert ant Cataglyphis nationallicence Navigation nationallicence Systematic search nationallicence Food search nationallicence Nest search nationallicence Pfeffer Sarah Institute of Neurobiology, University of Ulm, 89069, Ulm, Germany aut Bolek Siegfried Institute of Neurobiology, University of Ulm, 89069, Ulm, Germany aut Wolf Harald Institute of Neurobiology, University of Ulm, 89069, Ulm, Germany aut Wittlinger Matthias Institute of Neurobiology, University of Ulm, 89069, Ulm, Germany aut Animal Cognition Springer Berlin Heidelberg 18/4(2015-07-01), 885-894 1435-9448 18:4<885 2015 18 10071 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-015-0858-0 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-015-0858-0 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Pfeffer Sarah Institute of Neurobiology, University of Ulm, 89069, Ulm, Germany aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Bolek Siegfried Institute of Neurobiology, University of Ulm, 89069, Ulm, Germany aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Wolf Harald Institute of Neurobiology, University of Ulm, 89069, Ulm, Germany aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Wittlinger Matthias Institute of Neurobiology, University of Ulm, 89069, Ulm, Germany aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Animal Cognition Springer Berlin Heidelberg 18/4(2015-07-01), 885-894 1435-9448 18:4<885 2015 18 10071