The wind-evoked escape behavior of the cricket Gryllodes sigillatus was investigated using an air puff stimulus. A high velocity air puff elicited the escape behavior in many crickets. The crickets tended to escape away from the stimulus source, but the direction was not accurately oriented 180°from the stimulus. After bilateral cercal ablation, only a few crickets showed wind-evoked escape behavior, and their response rates did not increase even 19 days after ablation. Therefore, infor mation on air motion detected by cercal filiform hairs is essential for triggering wind-evoked behav ior. After unilateral cercal ablation, the 81.3% response rate of intact crickets decreased to 16.5%, that is, it decreased to almost 20% that of intact crickets. One week after unilateral cercal ablation, the response rate recovered to more than 60% that of intact crickets. However, the accuracy rate of the escape direction of G. sigillatus showed no change even immediately after the unilateral cer cal ablation. Therefore, both cerci are not necessarily required to determine the escape direction The behavioral characteristics of wind-evoked escape of G. sigillatus are compared with those of another species of cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus. The two species of cricket employ different strat egies for wind-evoked escape.
How to translate text using browser tools
1 April 2006
Behavioral Analyses of Wind-evoked Escape of the Cricket, Gryllodes sigillatus
Masamichi Kanou,
Atsuko Konishi,
Rie Suenaga
ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE
cercus
compensation
cricket
escape behavior
wind sensitivity