Adaptable navigation in bull ants (Myrmecia midas).

Abstract

In an early scientific description of navigation (finding one's way from a known location to a known destination) in an arthropod, Charles Turner, one of comparative psychology's staunchest early proponents of studying individual variation. The field of comparative psychology has caught up with Charles Turner. In this essay, the author presents an overview of the results of previous studies which suggest that several species of ants use vision effectively to navigate in three dimensions, in daylight, and in darkness. Bull ants, a species that navigates in dim light, have large compound eyes containing receptors that are sensitive to ultraviolet (UV), blue, and green regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Islam et al.'s findings illustrate a very general point about behavior that comparative psychologists do (and should continue to) take seriously, theoretically, and empirically. When we take the time to look closely, the behavior of individuals varies in biologically and psychologically important ways, no matter the size of their bodies or nervous systems. The adaptability of individuals arises from variation within the individual over time, manifest in this study as the adoption of novel routes as circumstances required. The adaptability of populations arises from variation across individuals, evident in this study in ants that learned to travel directly to the edge of the barrier and ants that learned to travel directly to the barrier, then make a right-angle turn to travel along it to an edge. The sources and consequences of behavioral variability, within and across individuals, and its manifestations across species, must remain core concerns for comparative psychology, as they were for Charles Turner more than 100 years ago. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).