熱帶火蟻在覓食過程中的路徑學習與記憶（膜翅目：蟻科）

螞蟻可以使用不同的線索和信號進行導航，多數螞蟻物種的工蟻在覓食路程中會使用費洛蒙線索進行定位。本研究針對熱帶火蟻（Solenopsis geminata）覓食行為進行四種試驗，以探討其定位依據。試驗裝置為Y型管兩端連接塑膠容器。在訓練過程中，工蟻被訓練從蟻巢往Y型管右分支的容器內覓食。結果顯示訓練前，在第一個試驗（空白組試驗）中工蟻並沒有顯著偏好左轉或右轉。經過一週的右轉覓食訓練後，分別在控制組、左右交換組與更換新管組試驗中，工蟻均顯著偏好右轉。在覓食過程中，工蟻能學習並記住食物來源的路徑。從控制組試驗結果可知，費洛蒙路徑可促進工蟻的路徑學習。當面臨右轉記憶與費洛蒙衝突（左右交換組試驗）以及缺乏費洛蒙（更換新管組試驗）的狀況下，結果均顯示多數工蟻使用右轉記憶。這些研究結果指出，在熱帶火蟻工蟻的覓食活動中，轉向記憶可能被用來作為定位的依據。因此，我們推測熱帶火蟻工蟻在覓食過程中同時使用足跡費洛蒙與路徑記憶可提高其覓食效率。

關鍵字

熱帶火蟻；覓食； Y型管；費洛蒙；記憶

並列摘要

Ants use various cues and signals for navigation. In most ant species, workers use pheromonal cues for orientation during their foraging journeys. In this study, the foraging behavior of the tropical fire ant (Solenopsis geminata) was investigated through four types of experiments. A Y-maze was connected to two plastic containers to create experimental apparatus. Workers were trained to forage from their nest to the plastic feeding container located at the Y-maze's right branch. The results revealed that the workers did not exhibit a leftward or rightward turning bias in the first experiment (clean Y-maze) conducted before the training. After 1 week of training, the workers exhibited a significant right-turn preference in the control, reversal, and cue-absent (new Y-maze) experiments, indicating that the workers had learned and memorized the route to a food source during foraging. This finding suggests that the pheromone trails left in the control experiment improved route learning. When the workers encountered a situation in which conflicting information was provided (reversal experiment) or pheromonal cues were absent (cue-absent experiment), most used the right-turn memory. These results suggest that the turning memory can be applied to assist S. geminata workers in making orientation decisions during foraging activities. Thus, we speculate that S. geminata workers use both trail pheromones and route memory to improve their foraging efficiency during foraging.

並列關鍵字

Solenopsis geminata ； foraging ； Y-maze ； pheromone ； memory

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