The remarkable navigational abilities of social insects are proof that small brains can produce exquisitely efficient, robust navigation in complex environments. Because social insects produce specialist foragers that are amenable to field and lab studies, they have been productive model systems for studies of navigation. Ideas derived from these studies of insect navigation have shown how simple mechanisms can produce robust and seemingly complex behaviour. I show here how simple low-resolution panoramic views, without the need for cognitive processes such as object identification or labelling provides an elegant solution to cope with the complexity of the world. Recent insect navigation research has only been possible because of techniques enabling the recording of visual scenes from the perspective of the insect. Without such techniques one has to intuit an animal’s point of view (its Umwelt) and I discuss how this may lead to unhelpful assumptions about the cues available for navigation. In the future, ants running on a track ball in front of screens displaying ecological environments may provide a powerful tool to understand how complex behaviours can emerge from the interaction between brain, body and environment.

Post-scriptum :

Antoine Wystrach obtained his licence in biology in Caen, with a special focus on neuroscience and ecology. He then went to Paris 13 University for a master in Ethology, where animal behaviour is studied at the crossroad between ecology, neuroscience and psychology. AW started his own research project on ant visual navigation and realised a PhD combining lab (in the university of Toulouse Paul Sabatier) and field experiments in Australia (with Macquarie university). He then obtained 2 years founding from the the Fyssen Foundation to pursue his research on ant navigation in Sussex University, with a stronger focus on modelling. AW then went at the University of Edinburgh involved in a European project with the aim of modelling the neural mechanisms underpinning learning in drosophila larvae. He pursues in the mean time his research on ant navigation by collaborating with his previous lab in Sussex and Macquarie Universities. Beyond the field of insect navigation, AW’s research shows how apparently complex behaviours can arise from surprisingly simple explanations, and thus has an impact in the field of comparative cognition.