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Updated: Jun 5, 2025

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Cataglyphis ants have a polarity-sensitive magnetic compass

Robin Grob1, Johanna W Wegmann2, Wolfgang Rössler3

  • 1Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology (Zoology II), Biocenter, University of Würzburg, 97074 Würzburg, Germany; Department of Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7034 Trondheim, Norway.

Current Biology : CB
|December 7, 2024
PubMed
Summary

Desert ants use a polarity-sensitive magnetic compass for navigation, unlike most insects. This finding helps understand the mechanisms of animal magnetoreception.

Keywords:
compass calibrationdesert antgeomagentic fieldinsect navigationlearning walksmagnetoreception

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