Behavior and Ethology Commons^™

Distortion Of The Local Magnetic Field Appears To Neither Disrupt Nocturnal Navigation Nor Cue Shelter Recognition In The Amblypygid Paraphrynus Laevifrons, Daniel D. Wiegmann, Patrick Casto, Eileen Hebets, Verner P. Bingman

Eileen Hebets Publications

Many arthropods are known to be sensitive to the geomagnetic field and exploit the field to solve spatial problems. The polarity of the geomagnetic field is used, for instance, as an orientation cue by leafcutter ants as they travel on engineered trails in a rainforest and by Drosophila larvae as they move short distances in search of food. A ubiquitous orientation cue like the geomagnetic field may be especially useful in complex, cluttered environments like rainforests, where the reliability of celestial cues used to navigate in more open environments may be poor. The neotropical amblypygid Paraphrynus laevifrons is a nocturnal …