Figure 2. Individual test runs of homing ants.

Schematic nest searches of ants trained and tested with a nest-defining landmark that was either a magnetic, vibrational, visual or olfactory cue (red), control ants trained and tested without landmark (black) or naïve ants that experienced the landmark in the test for the first time (blue). Blue dashed line, nest position as defined by path integration; red dashed line, nest position as defined by landmark; point of release for each homing run at position -2 m from nest-defining cue. The first six turning points after the ants had passed the landmark for the first time were analyzed for their median position.