par Cammaerts Tricot, Marie-Claire
Référence Annales de la Société entomologique de France, 49, 4, page (402-412)
Publication Publié, 2013-12
Article révisé par les pairs
Résumé : Conditioning of isolated ants was attempted in the ant Myrmica sabuleti. Isolated ants did not die and could be visually as well as olfactorily conditioned. They acquired and kept or partly lost their visual or their olfactory conditioned responses as do ants living in a colony. Each individual of an ant colony is thus able to learn and memorize by itself. Any collective conditioning, learning and memory actually reflect the individuals performance. Naive workers paired with isolated previously conditioned ants apparently acquired olfactory conditioning in a shorter time than isolated ants, reaching a conditioning score identical to that of isolated ants. But they lost their apparent conditioning as soon as the olfactory cue was removed. Thus, imitation of nestmates exists in ants but does not lead, by itself, to learning sensu stricto since nothing of what has been imitated is retained. © 2014 © 2014 Société entomologique de France.