Fig. 7 in Early ant trajectories: spatial behaviour before behaviourism

Fig. 7 Detail of a note written by Santiago Ramón y Cajal. Transcription: Santschi—en Messor (barbara?)—quita palito de ruta y hormigas que estaban habituadas lo extrañan y se paran o se alejan para revenir era un punto de reparo olfativo. Rayos de espejo producen remolinos y agitaciones para continuar camino. In this note Ramón y Cajal refers to two experiments performed by Santschi in Messor barbarus. The first leads to the assumption of some kind of olfactory reference memory.The second deals with one of Santschi's mirror experiments, in which the reflected rays of the sun disturbed the ants and caused them to get agitated, but did not prevent them from finally continuing the way.When Ramón y Cajal performed his own experiments on sensory performances in several species of ants, he finally admitted that theseexperiments were only preliminary ones considered as a starting point for future research. However, already being inhis latesixties he didnot continue thisproject.The handwritten note is from the Cajal archives at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas inMadrid,Spain