Meeting Abstract
Amblypygi are a nocturnal order of arachnids that live in tropical and subtropical regions. These animals have specialized appendages-antenniform legs-that process olfactory, mechanosensory, and chemosensory cues. These sense organs are used by amblypygids to relocate and recognize a home site after a night of foraging. Olfaction appears to play a key role in their ability to navigate successfully. The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether tactile cues might also be involved. Amblypygids can discriminate two different tactile stimuli by associating a viable shelter and an inaccessible shelter with randomly assigned tactile stimuli. Animals were allowed to wander freely in an arena that contained an accessible and inaccessible shelter, where the two shelters were cued by distinct tactile stimuli. They were then tested in a small arena with a floor that was divided into two sections, equally covered by each tactile stimulus. Preference scores based on occupancy in the two sections of the test arena suggest that subjects learned to associate tactile cues with access to a shelter.
