Lugging worker

Lugging worker ants

use a celestial compass.

Is this a moonwalk?

 

Ants often need to walk backwards when dragging heavy food items to their nests, but how do they navigate when moving in reverse? Rather than relying on visual memories of terrestrial cues, ants instead use their celestial compass – this can be disrupted by presenting ants with a mirror image of the sun’s position in the sky. Schwarz et al, 2017.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.12.019

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