Level of Aggression in House Crickets (Acheta domesticus) With Different Resources Available
Level of Aggression in House Crickets (Acheta domesticus) With Different Resources Available
Abstract: The house cricket, Acheta domesticus, was used to test whether food and potential mates drive aggressive behavior. Male crickets were randomly selected in pairs and place into a cage to observe aggressive behaviors in the presence of no food, food, and female. The cage provided a confine area for the crickets to fight one another while the variables of food and female were used in attempts of increasing aggressive interactions between the male crickets. There was no significance found through this experiment due to a lack of data. It was discovered that the experiment would have to be done at a larger scale to be able to see any significance in the two variables.
Intro: Charles Darwin’s natural selection comes to mind when viewing the aggressive behaviors in crickets. This interaction comes into play specifically when competition for resources, such as foods and females, are scarce. Thus, only the organism most fit in the environment would be allowed to survive and pass on its genes. Pioneers of animal behavior, pave the way to understanding the why animals act the way they act (von Frisch, 1967; Lorenz, 1952; and Tinbergen 1951). With further integration between different biological organizations, we see the rise of new possible research, especially in crickets (Wong & Hoffman, 2010). The house crickets, Acheta domesticus, would normally display little to no aggression between males because of their natural behavior to live in groups. But when isolated for a length of time, ag...
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Outline the physical similarities between the (Blaptica dubia) cockroach and the cricket. Explain previous studies on physical stress in the cricket and in different species of cockroaches. Briefly discuss how the metabolic rate between the two species has been found to be very similar.
Students will engage in a discussion of honeybees and they will share with the classroom what they know about bees and their unique qualities. During this activity students will engage in a KWL chart to collect ideas and think about what they would further like to know.
Deborah L. Duffy, Yuying Hsu, James A. Serpell ,Applied Animal Behavior Science - 1 December 2008 (Vol. 114, Issue 3, Pages 441-460, DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2008.04.006)
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We were unable to reject the null hypothesis with our results from trial one. The calculated chi value was less than the critical value. Our calculated chi value was 5.00, which is 0.99 less than the critical value at 5.99. Although the results did show a trend that followed our initial prediction where bright light is preferred amongst the house crickets, the statistical results demonstrated that these observations were mainly random occurrences. Initially, before calculating our statistical results, we thought that the crickets picked the brighter region because it is often associated with heat; since the house cricket needs heat in order to develop and survive, we thought that this was an important factor that may influence the cricket’s choice in preferable section. During our experiment, we also observed that many of the crickets were not really decided when placed into our experimental setup. Many of the house crickets only ran around in circles in the stacking dish. After the two minute timeframe, we marked the location of each cricket and most of the crickets rema...
According to Dorothea Kohstall-Schnell and Heribert Gras, Nicklaus, R found in his study most insects have fine hairs and/ or other structures for detecting movement such as wind and sound. (Activity of Giant Interneurones and other Wind-Sensitive Elements of the Terminal Ganglion in the Walking Cricket. Kohstall-Schnell, D. Gras, H. 1994).The cricket is equipped with these hair sensory structures. According to Dorothea Kohstall-Schnell and Heribert Gras, Palka, J. and Olberg, R found these structures trigger sensory cells and the message then passes through neurons to reach the terminal ganglion. (Activity of Giant Interneurones and other Wind-Sensitive Elements of the Terminal Ganglion in the Walking Cricket. Kohstall-Schnell, D. Gras, H. 1994). Dingle and Fox (1966) recently demonstrated that light also has an effect on cricket’s brain responses. Crickets are an easy invertebrate to test; they are mobile and are known for jumping and their mating noises. The crickets will react to different stimuli, light, sound, and motion, when placed on ice. The cricket’s movement will gradually increase as another stimulus is added on, making the three stimuli the highest amount of movement. With the crickets being cooled down they will be less mobile, but the stimuli will still have an effect on them. This experiment was chosen because crickets are easily accessed, as well as the rest of the materials used in this lab. The experiment started out being a simple hot vs. cold experiment with crickets, then it was given stimuli to make the lab more thought-provoking.
All animals employ a vast array of behaviors that contribute to their ability to find resources, increase their chances of utilizing them efficiently, and therefore increase their overall fitness. One of the behaviors observed extensively throughout the animal kingdom to accomplish these tasks is aggression. Agonist conflict and aggressive behavior occurs both between species and within species. Curiously, within-species agonism is common in many animals because it can manipulate social hierarchies which can affect the distribution of resources within a population (Moore 2007 and Wofford 2013). Evaluating agonistic behavior is therefore a valuable means by which to examine expenditure of energy for resources (Moore 2007 and Wofford 2013).
Females like to choose mates who have very bright colors as it is a sign of the male’s good health and vigor. The natural and sexual selection can affect populations in three ways: directional (environmental conditions change in a consistent direction; one extreme of phenotypes is favored), stabilizing (environmental conditions are relatively constant; intermediate phenotype is favored), and disruptive selection (environment has more than one type of useful resource; both extremes of phenotypes are favored). An example of directional selection is pesticide resistance since only the insects with a resistance are favored; an example of stabilizing selection is that the smallest lizards have a difficulty defending their territory whereas the largest lizards are most likely to be eaten by owls; an example of disruptive selection are the black-bellied seedcrackers since they either have a large beak (which they can use to eat had seeds), or a small beak (which allows them to eat soft seeds). Disruptive selection shows a balanced polymorphism, which is when two or more phenotypes are maintained in a
These populations are often limited by water or food supply and have large territories.[25] Female-female aggression in the noncommensal house mouse populations is much higher, reaching a level generally attributed to free-ranging species. Male aggression is also higher in noncommensal populations. In commensal populations, males come into contact with other males quite frequently due to high population densities and aggression must be mediated or the risk of injury becomes too great.[24]
The recordings were done in 4 months and for each month the waggle dance varied greatly because of the change in food abundance during the season, which also affects the average foraging distance. For each dance that was decoded the researchers determined the number of dance followers 10 sec after the beginning of the dance and then they also determined the number of waggle dances these followers followed. The 10 seconds give the bees time to identify the dance and actually approach the dancer. Another observation in the recording was made to view how many other dances were happening at the same time. Followers of the waggle dancers do not just stand near the dancer. They are identified as the bees facing their heads within a few lengths away (antennal length) from the dancer. They then follow the movement of the dancer and stopped following a dance when she walks away to continue with the other errands it has. A dancer was considered to have stopped dancing if they interrupted the dance for more than 5 seconds, to do other tasks. The results of the experiment show that the waggle dances for the food source is affected by the distance to the source. As the distance increases, the bees follow fewer waggle dances.
The objective of the Capture-Recapture Cricket Investigation was to find out how much crickets there were. Each group would get a piece of paper towel and place the paper towel in their group’s box. Then, they would count how many crickets have a White-Out mark on their back. After that, they mark the remaining crickets in their box who don’t have a White-Out mark. The indication of the importance of the work is that scientists could use the
With the fact that predators had aggressive behavior in their DNA in mind, the aggressive actions of the group of
Strait, David S. "The Feeding Biomechanics and Dietary Ecology of Australopithecus Africanus." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 12 Dec. 2008. Web. 19 Nov. 2015. .
Genetically influenced traits tend to be polygenic in character, involving many genes acting in concert to produce a certain response. Therefore, association of one gene with one behavior is usually only partially conclusive. Behavior depends on the interaction of multiple gene sequences with environmental influences. ...
Seventh, in some groups of insects, truly social behavior has evolved. Social behavior will allow a large population to survive through difficult periods via cooperation in food gathering, food storage, temperature control, and colony