DEVELOPMENT OF BEHAVIORAL SKILLS IN MYRMICA ANTS (HYMENOPTERA, FORMICIDAE) THROUGH VARIED NEST ILLUMINATION
Myrmica ruginodis ants were trained through varied light signals (continuous or intermittent illumination) to find a feeder at one of the two exits to the arena (bridges). The ants are found to very quickly, during 3 presentations, to become capable of learning how to find a feeder using signals other than illumination which the researcher unwillingly provided. In the first series of experiments, the ants learned to navigate through the picture of the conditional “sky”, determining the location of the feeder on a transparent arena located 30 cm above the nest substrate. In the second series, they learned how to respond by mass mobilization to both entrances to the arena by the smell of a honey solution from a distance of several meters. It took a long time to develop behavioral skills to use the pattern of illumination, without visible progress, and these appeared only by the 20th presentation of the insight type.