Predator-naïve fall field crickets respond to the chemical cues of wolf spiders

2008 ◽  
Vol 86 (11) ◽  
pp. 1259-1263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan J. Storm ◽  
Steven L. Lima
Keyword(s):  
Filter Paper ◽  
Chemical Cues ◽  
Acheta Domesticus ◽  
Wolf Spiders ◽  
Gryllus Pennsylvanicus ◽  
Field Crickets ◽  
Hogna Helluo ◽  
Terrestrial Insects ◽  
Rabidosa Rabida ◽  
Blank Filter

Few studies have addressed whether terrestrial insects assess predation risk via chemical cues. We exposed predator-naïve fall field crickets ( Gryllus pennsylvanicus Burmeister, 1838) to filter paper containing the chemical cues of three wolf spiders ( Hogna helluo (Walckenaer, 1837), Rabidosa rabida (Walckenaer, 1837), Rabidosa punctulata (Hentz, 1844)), the house cricket ( Acheta domesticus L., 1758,) and blank filter paper. Crickets exhibited greater immobility and reduced speed of movement when exposed to chemical cues of all three spider species. Crickets exhibited reduced speed with increasing mass of R. punctulata, suggesting that larger spiders may pose a greater risk. Cricket response did not differ between cues of H. helluo fed conspecific crickets versus H. helluo fed house crickets, suggesting that crickets cannot distinguish between cues from H. helluo fed phylogenetically similar crickets. Our work nevertheless demonstrates that naïve field crickets respond to chemical cues of several species of wolf spiders.

Male salamanders remember individuals based on chemical or visual cues

Behaviour ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 146 (11) ◽  
pp. 1485-1498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Kohn ◽  
Robert Jaeger
Keyword(s):  
Filter Paper ◽  
Forest Floor ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Chemical Cues ◽  
Plethodon Cinereus ◽  
Multiple Cues

AbstractThe use of multiple cues can enhance the detection, recognition, discrimination, and memorability of individuals by receivers. We conducted two experiments, using only males, to test whether territorial red-backed salamanders, Plethodon cinereus, could use only chemical or only visual cues to remember familiar conspecifics. In both experiments, focal males spent significantly more time threatening unfamiliar than familiar male intruders. They also chemoinvestigated the filter paper containing chemical cues of unfamiliar intruders more often than that of familiar intruders. These results suggest that red-backed salamanders can use both chemical and visual cues to recognize familiar individuals, allowing them to distinguish between less threatening neighbours and more threatening intruders in the heterogeneous forest floor habitat, where visual cues alone would not always be available.

CRICKETS AS PREDATORS OF THE APPLE MAGGOT, RHAGOLETIS POMONELLA (DIPTERA: TEPHRITIDAE)

1971 ◽  
Vol 103 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. G. Monteith
Keyword(s):  
High Mortality ◽  
High Density ◽  
Rhagoletis Pomonella ◽  
Mortality Factors ◽  
Gryllus Pennsylvanicus ◽  
Field Crickets ◽  
Time Of Year

AbstractThe high density of the field crickets Gryllus pennsylvanicus (Burmeister) and Nemobius fasciatus (DeGeer) under test trees in an unsprayed orchard, and the high mortality of apple-maggot pupae, Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh), in test lots at the same time of year, suggested that crickets may have preyed heavily on the pupae and thus have constituted important mortality factors. Laboratory observations showed that crickets can detect, disinter, and consume apple-maggot pupae in simulated natural surroundings.

Age determination of adult field crickets: methodology and field applications

1987 ◽  
Vol 65 (6) ◽  
pp. 1564-1566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlene Zuk
Keyword(s):  
Age Determination ◽  
Growth Rings ◽  
Daily Growth ◽  
Gryllus Pennsylvanicus ◽  
Field Crickets ◽  
Behavioral Studies ◽  
Aging Adult ◽  
Gryllus Veletis

Details of a method originated by A.C. Neville for aging adult insects by counting daily growth rings in tibial or other body sections are given. A test of the method's accuracy using laboratory-reared field crickets (Gryllus pennsylvanicus and Gryllus veletis) showed that the number of growth rings counted is equivalent to the number of days past adult molt until the insect is approximately 25–30 days old, when cuticle growth is completed and rings are no longer added. Field populations of the two cricket species sampled in 2 years seldom contained individuals with more than 18 rings. Several applications for the technique to ecological and behavioral studies are given, using examples from data on G. veletis and G. pennsylvanicus.

The relative effects of mating status and age on the mating behaviour of female field crickets

2010 ◽  
Vol 88 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin A. Judge ◽  
Kim-Chi Tran ◽  
Darryl T. Gwynne
Keyword(s):  
Mating Behaviour ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Mating Status ◽  
Female Age ◽  
Intrinsic Factors ◽  
Gryllus Pennsylvanicus ◽  
Field Crickets ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Female Behaviour ◽  
Female Choosiness

Intrinsic factors such as female age and mating status have been found to affect female choosiness. However, as these factors are often confounded in the wild because mated females are usually older individuals, the relative influence of these two factors on female behaviour is unclear. Using a fully factorial design, we tested the relative effects of age and mating status of female field crickets ( Gryllus pennsylvanicus Burmeister, 1838) on both (i) the probability that she would mate and (ii) her latency to mate. We found that virgin females were both more likely to mate and copulated more quickly than mated females, but female age had no significant effect on either the probability of mating or the latency to copulate. These results clearly show that mating status is more important in determining female mating behaviour than age. We suggest that previous work which showed an age effect on female choosiness in virgins alone might be of reduced relevance if most females do not remain unmated for long.

Spatial Distribution of Calling Field Crickets, Gryllus pennsylvanicus (Orthoptera: Gryllidae)

1986 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 255 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. W. French ◽  
E. J. McGowan ◽  
V. L. Backus
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Gryllus Pennsylvanicus ◽  
Field Crickets

Odor plumes and how blue crabs use them in finding prey.

1994 ◽  
Vol 197 (1) ◽  
pp. 349-375
Author(s):  
M J Weissburg ◽  
R K Zimmer-Faust
Keyword(s):  
Turbulent Flows ◽  
Chemical Cues ◽  
Fluid Motion ◽  
Viscous Sublayer ◽  
Chemical Information ◽  
Chemical Stimulus ◽  
Turbulent Regime ◽  
Blue Crabs ◽  
Odor Plumes ◽  
Terrestrial Insects

Orientation of animals using chemical cues often takes place in flows, where the stimulus properties of odorants are affected by the characteristics of fluid motion. Kinematic analysis of movement patterns by animals responding to odor plumes has been used to provide insight into the behavioral and physiological aspects of olfactory-mediated orientation, particularly in terrestrial insects. We have used this approach in analyzing predatory searching by blue crabs in response to plumes of attractant metabolites released from the siphons of live clams in controlled hydrodynamic environments. Crabs proceed directly upstream towards clams in smooth-turbulent flows and show high locomotory velocities and few periods of motionlessness. Crabs assume more indirect trajectories and display slower locomotion and more stopping in rough-turbulent flows. This degradation of foraging performance is most pronounced as flow shifts from a smooth- to a rough-turbulent regime, where the change in hydraulic properties is associated with contraction of the viscous sublayer region of the boundary layer. Because flow in this region is quasilaminar, the viscous sublayer may be a particularly effective vehicle for chemical stimulus transmission, such that orientation is severely compromised when it is reduced or removed. Our results also suggest that rheotactic and chemical information are both necessary for successful orientation. Perception of chemical cues acts to bias locomotion upcurrent, and feedback from odorant stimulus distributions appears directly to regulate subsequent stopping and turning en route to prey. Although the mechanisms of orientation to odorant plumes displayed by insects and blue crabs are largely similar, blue crabs appear to rely more heavily on spatial and/or temporal aspects of chemical stimulus distributions than has been suggested for insect systems.

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