Ant Ink and Infotaxis

The ant secretion methyl-4-methyl-pyrrole-2-carboxylate - "innocuous, faintly grassy, sulphurous, or fruitlike with a hint of naphtha", "an ichor of extraordinary power for the ants.

"They sweep their antennae back and forth in advance of the head to catch the odorant molecules. When a forager takes a long turn to the left and starts to run away from the track, its left antenna break out of the odor space first and is no longer stimulated by the guiding substance. In a few thousandths of a second, the any perceives the change and pulls back to the right." (p30-31) 

Biophilia: The Human Bond with Other Species 

E. O. Wilson, Harvard University Press, 1984

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biophilia_hypothesis

On Space and Place

Confused John Travolta

The hypothalamus is called the seat of social behavior. The hippocampus is the thing that knows where you are, your internal GPS. Together, these brain parts, along with your olfactory system, of course, influence all of your decisions. Everything we do is dependent on where we are (or where we think we are) and who we’re with (or who we think…). Olfactory data informs these things. Places and the smell of those places are centrally located both in the memory and in the motivating, motility actuating parts of us. The emotions that drive us are informed by the smells of the places we are in.

This new report shows that there may be very specific cells that can tell who’s house you’re in. (The experiment is on male mice and other male’s habitats.) They’re looking to use this to help people with social disorders, like autism, schizophrenia, depression, and social anxiety. Anyway, this just points to the use of olfactory studies to help with larger social problems.

Smell tells intruder mice how to behave

phys.org, Jun 2016