Effects of spatial knowledge and feeding experience on foraging choices inGerman cockroaches

We investigated the importance of spatial knowledge of food positions and o f feeding experience on foraging choices in German cockroaches, Blattella g ermanica (L.). We trained cockroaches in an arena to feed on a particular f ood close to a landmark. To test whether the landmark helped guide cockroac hes to the site, we removed the food and put the landmark in a different po sition. Cockroaches then went to the site indicated by the landmark. Given a choice between novel food in a new site and the known food in the known s ite, cockroaches preferred the novel food. But when the novel food was plac ed in the known site and the known food elsewhere, cockroaches were attract ed to the latter. Thus, they differentiated novel food placed in a site tha t was previously occupied by the known food from novel food in a novel site . It seems that cockroaches learn the locations of specific resources in th eir home range and associate particular locations with particular resources . (C) 2001 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.