Initial evidence of path integration in desert sand scorpions.
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1
Universtiy of Oklahoma, Department of Zoology, United States
The sensory cues and neural circuitry that underpin animal navigation have long interested neuroethologists. Many animals track various cues, including electromagnetic, chemical, sound, gravitational, and geomagnetic. Some animals appear capable of path integration or dead reckoning, finding their way back to a position in the absence of obvious external stimuli. Social hymenopterans such as bees and ants have yielded considerable insights into the navigation problem. However, these insect studies have limitations including the large distances traveled, the small size and speed of the animals, and the difficulty of duplicating the behavior in the laboratory. Sand scorpions have characteristics that overcome many of these limitations. They live in clean sand habitats where they are faithful to burrows they make, and their home ranges are about a square meter, a convenient size to recreate in a laboratory. Scorpions are also relatively large, slow-moving animals that are easily tracked by overhead infrared videography. They are hardy subjects for electrophysiological investigation, and it may even be possible to record from freely moving animals in a pseudo-natural environment. Furthermore, their cuticle fluoresces a brilliant cyan green under UV light, which makes them easy to collect.
We have documented baseline surface movements of desert grassland scorpions, Paruroctonus utahensis, as they emerge and return to their burrows in their native sand habitats in the northern Chihuahua desert of west Texas. Scorpions often wait at the thresholds of their burrows and emerge upon detecting the vibrations generated by arthropod prey walking nearby. Scorpions take looping routes on their way back home and do not retrace the route by which they exited their burrows. We can also entice scorpions from their burrow using artificial lures dragged across the sand. In one instance a scorpion grabbed the lure and was inadvertently dragged about 20 cm away from where it first latched on near its burrow. The animal then searched the location corresponding to where its burrow should have been had it not been displaced. In a subsequent experiment, we lured an animal out of its burrow and onto a small cutting board inserted under the sand. The board, the sand layer, and the animal were then manually displaced an additional 20 cm from the burrow. Again, the scorpion’s first movement was to an area that would have represented the burrow had the animal not been displaced. The animal eventually found its burrow, taking a zig-zag route once it neared its home. These observations suggest that these animals may use some form of dead reckoning in the initial relocation of their burrows, with elements of burrow recognition as they near the burrow. We are currently trying to get scorpions to establish home burrows within circular sand arenas in the laboratory. If successful, we plan to conduct displacement studies and systematically manipulate specific cues to deduce the stimuli that guide animals back to their homes.
Keywords:
arthropod,
Behavior,
navigation,
path integration,
scorpion,
sensory
Conference:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology, College Park. Maryland USA, United States, 5 Aug - 10 Aug, 2012.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation (see alternatives below as well)
Topic:
Orientation and Navigation
Citation:
Gaffin
DD,
Vinnedge
JE and
Barker
TN
(2012). Initial evidence of path integration in desert sand scorpions..
Conference Abstract:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnbeh.2012.27.00344
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Received:
30 Apr 2012;
Published Online:
07 Jul 2012.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Douglas D Gaffin, Universtiy of Oklahoma, Department of Zoology, Norman, Oklahoma, 73019, United States, ddgaffin@ou.edu