The learning of a sequence of visual patterns by the ant Cataglyphis cursor

We used a maze to explore the ability of Cataglyphis cursor to store multip le visual patterns presented in a fixed sequence. Ants were trained individ ually to negotiate a linear maze that consisted of four boxes connected by tunnels and through which an ant travelled from a sucrose feeder back to it s nest. Each box had one entrance and two possible exits. One exit led to a blocked tunnel and the other to an open tunnel leading to the entrance of the next box. The open and closed exits in each box were labelled by differ ent solid, black shapes that were specific to each box. Ants learnt to nego tiate the maze using the shapes for guidance rather than a fixed motor stra tegy. Trained ants could not only discriminate positive from negative shape s, but had also learnt which positive shape belonged to which box. For exam ple, when the positive shape appropriate to box 1 (1+) was pitted against t hat appropriate to box 3 (3+), ants preferred 1+ to 3+ in box 1, but chose 3+ over 1+ in box 3. We conclude that ants can identify individual positive shapes and expect to encounter them in the correct order independently of extra-maze cues.