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Desert ants perceive odor maps in stereo and use this information for navigation

Desert ants perceive odor maps in stereo and use this information for navigationScientists of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena have investigated another navigational skill of desert ants. These ants are already well-known for their remarkable visual orientation: they use a sun compass along with a step counter and visible landmarks to locate their nest after foraging for food. After the research team from Jena recently discovered that these ants also use olfactory cues to pinpoint their nests, they conducted new experiments: they revealed that the animals can not only locate an odor source, but also use the distribution of different odors in the vicinity of their nests in a map-like manner. The scientists found that the ants need both their antennae for this odor-guided navigation: they smell the scenery in stereo. (Animal Behavior, online first, doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.01.011)The desert ant Cataglyphis fortis is an insect native to the inhospitable salt-pans of Tunisia. To pinpoint th

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