Spatial learning data in a foraging task for Heliconius erato butterflies

This dataset contains data from experiments described in the manuscript: Moura, P. A., Cardoso, M. Z., and Montgomery, S. H. (submitted). Heliconius butterflies use landscape features, but not local landmarks, during spatial learning.
In this study, we use a four-choice spatial learning experiment (one rewarded and three unrewarded feeders) and adjacent visual cues. We performed three sets of experiments: 1) Experiment 1 tests whether Heliconius can learn the position of a rewarding feeder associated with a landmark, both of which were fixed in place within a transparent-walled cage; 2) Experiment 2 tests whether Heliconius can learn an association between a rewarding feeder and a mobile landmark when both were randomly positioned together, such that within a transparent-walled cage the only reliable cue was the position of the landmark; 3) Experiment 3 tests whether Heliconius can learn the position of a rewarding feeder in an environment without surrounding landscape features.
Main results of the experiments are: (1) Heliconius butterflies do not need a local landmark to learn the position of a reliable food source; (2) Heliconius butterflies did not associate a food source to an adjacent visual cue; (3) Heliconius butterflies learn positional information but do not use local landmarks even in the absence of external visual cues. Our research suggests that Heliconius butterflies do not rely on local visual landmarks to pinpoint the location of a food source but most likely rely on the coupling of general visual landmarks, or landscape cues, and odometric and compass information. We hypothesize that in the visually complex environments in which Heliconius occur, general landscape cues coupled with egocentric cues may provide a more accurate and temporally stable strategy for identifying patchily distributed pollen sources where large-scale environmental features are more stable than local vegetation.

本数据集包含已投稿手稿中的实验相关数据，该手稿作者为Moura, P. A.、Cardoso, M. Z.及Montgomery, S. H.（已投稿），标题为《釉蛱蝶（Heliconius）在空间学习过程中依赖景观特征而非局部地标》。
本研究采用四选一空间学习实验范式（设置1个奖励性喂食器与3个无奖励喂食器），并搭配邻近视觉线索开展实验。本次实验共分为3组：
1. 实验1：验证釉蛱蝶能否学会与地标绑定的奖励喂食器位置，二者均固定于透明壁笼内；
2. 实验2：验证当奖励喂食器与可移动地标随机同步位移时，釉蛱蝶能否建立二者的关联——此时透明壁笼内唯一可靠的线索即为地标位置；
3. 实验3：验证釉蛱蝶能否在无周边景观特征的环境中学会奖励喂食器的位置。

实验核心结果如下：
(1) 釉蛱蝶无需借助局部地标即可学会可靠食物源的位置；
(2) 釉蛱蝶不会将食物源与邻近视觉线索建立关联；
(3) 釉蛱蝶能够习得位置信息，但即便在无外部视觉线索的环境中，也不会使用局部地标。

本研究表明，釉蛱蝶并不会依赖局部视觉地标来精准定位食物源，而是大概率通过通用视觉地标（或景观线索）与里程信息、罗盘信息的耦合来实现定位。我们据此提出假设：在釉蛱蝶栖息的视觉复杂环境中，通用景观线索结合以自我为中心的线索，或许能为定位斑块状分布的花粉源提供更精准且时间上更稳定的策略——这类环境中的大规模环境特征比局部植被更为稳定。