Premium
Homing in German Cockroaches, Blattella germanica (L.) (Insecta: Dictyoptera): Multi‐Channelled Orientation Cues
Author(s) -
Rivault Colette,
Durier Virginie
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
ethology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.739
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1439-0310
pISSN - 0179-1613
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0310.2004.01018.x
Subject(s) - path integration , homing (biology) , sensory cue , german cockroach , olfactory cues , cockroach , dictyoptera , communication , computer vision , orientation (vector space) , pheromone , biology , olfaction , computer science , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , psychology , ecology , mathematics , geometry
Cockroaches use navigational cues to elaborate their return path to the shelter. Our experiments investigated how individuals weighted information to choose where to search for the shelter in situations where path integration, visual and olfactory cues were conflicting. We showed that homing relied on a complex set of environmental stimuli, each playing a particular part. Path integration cues give cockroaches an estimation of the position of their goal, visual landmarks guide them to that position from a distance, while olfactory cues indicate the end of the path. Cockroaches gave the greatest importance to the first cues they encountered along their return path. Nevertheless, visual cues placed beyond aggregation pheromone deposits reduced their arrest efficiency and induced search in the area near the visual cues.