Version 1
: Received: 25 January 2023 / Approved: 27 January 2023 / Online: 27 January 2023 (06:24:23 CET)
How to cite:
Merchant, A.B.; Gaffin, D.D. No Evidence of Internal Path Integration in Sand Scorpion Homing Behavior in Artificial Arenas. Preprints2023, 2023010490. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202301.0490.v1.
Merchant, A.B.; Gaffin, D.D. No Evidence of Internal Path Integration in Sand Scorpion Homing Behavior in Artificial Arenas. Preprints 2023, 2023010490. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202301.0490.v1.
Cite as:
Merchant, A.B.; Gaffin, D.D. No Evidence of Internal Path Integration in Sand Scorpion Homing Behavior in Artificial Arenas. Preprints2023, 2023010490. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202301.0490.v1.
Merchant, A.B.; Gaffin, D.D. No Evidence of Internal Path Integration in Sand Scorpion Homing Behavior in Artificial Arenas. Preprints 2023, 2023010490. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202301.0490.v1.
Abstract
Many sand scorpions are faithful to burrows they dig, however, it is unknown how these animals get back home after hunting excursions. Of the many mechanisms of homing that exist, path integration (PI) is one of the more common tools used by arachnids. In PI, an animal integrates its distance and direction while leaving its home, enabling it to compute an approximate home-bound vector for the return trip. The objective of our study was to test whether scorpions use PI to return home under absolute darkness in the lab. We first allowed animals to establish burrows in homing arenas. Then, after they left their burrow, we recorded the scorpion’s location in the homing arena before we transferred it to the center of a testing arena. We used overhead IR cameras to record its movements in the testing arena. If scorpions exhibited PI, we predicted they would follow a vector in the test arena that approximated the same angle and distance from the capture point to their burrow in their home arena. However, under the conditions of this experiment, we found no evidence that scorpions moved along such home-bound vectors. We speculate that scorpions may need a reliable reference cue to accommodate path integration.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
