scholarly journals Development rate rather than social environment influences cognitive performance in Australian black field crickets, Teleogryllus commodus

PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin L. Anderson ◽  
Michael M. Kasumovic
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Morris Water Maze ◽  
Water Maze ◽  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Individual Performance ◽  
Cognitive Differences ◽  
Field Crickets ◽  
Teleogryllus Commodus ◽  
Black Field

Cognitive functioning is vital for enabling animals of all taxa to optimise their chances of survival and reproductive success. Learning and memory in particular are drivers of many evolutionary processes. In this study, we examine how developmental plasticity can affect cognitive ability by exploring the role the early social environment has on problem solving ability and learning of female black field crickets, Teleogryllus commodus. We used two learning paradigms, an analog of the Morris water maze and a novel linear maze, to examine cognitive differences between individuals reared in two acoustic treatments: silence or calling. Although there was no evidence of learning or memory, individuals that took longer to mature solved the Morris water maze more quickly. Our results suggest that increased investment into cognitive development is likely associated with increased development time during immature stages. Inconsistent individual performance and motivation during the novel linear maze task highlights the difficulties of designing ecologically relevant learning tasks within a lab setting. The role of experimental design in understanding cognitive ability and learning in more natural circumstances is discussed.

scholarly journals Development rate rather than social environment influences cognitive performance in Australian black field crickets, Teleogryllus commodus

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin Anderson ◽  
Michael M Kasumovic
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Morris Water Maze ◽  
Water Maze ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Field Crickets ◽  
Teleogryllus Commodus ◽  
Black Field

Cognitive functioning is vital for enabling animals of all taxa to optimise their chances of survival and reproductive success. Learning and memory in particular are drivers of many evolutionary processes. The field of cognitive ecology explores how the environment can affect investment into cognitive capacity and learning ability. In this study, we examine how developmental plasticity can affect cognitive ability by exploring the role of early social environment on influencing problem solving ability and learning of female black field crickets, Teleogryllus commodus. We used two learning paradigms, an analog of the Morris water maze and a novel linear maze, to examine cognitive differences between individuals reared in two acoustic treatments: silence or calling. Although there was no evidence of learning or memory, individuals that took longer to mature solved the Morris water maze more quickly. This suggests that increased investment into cognitive development is likely associated with increased development time during immature stages. Inconsistent individual performance and motivation during the novel linear maze task highlights the difficulties of designing ecologically relevant learning tasks within a lab setting. The role of experimental design in understanding cognitive ability and learning in more natural circumstances is discussed.

scholarly journals Development rate rather than social environment influences cognitive performance in Australian black field crickets, Teleogryllus commodus

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin Anderson ◽  
Michael M Kasumovic
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Morris Water Maze ◽  
Water Maze ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Field Crickets ◽  
Teleogryllus Commodus ◽  
Black Field

Cognitive functioning is vital for enabling animals of all taxa to optimise their chances of survival and reproductive success. Learning and memory in particular are drivers of many evolutionary processes. The field of cognitive ecology explores how the environment can affect investment into cognitive capacity and learning ability. In this study, we examine how developmental plasticity can affect cognitive ability by exploring the role of early social environment on influencing problem solving ability and learning of female black field crickets, Teleogryllus commodus. We used two learning paradigms, an analog of the Morris water maze and a novel linear maze, to examine cognitive differences between individuals reared in two acoustic treatments: silence or calling. Although there was no evidence of learning or memory, individuals that took longer to mature solved the Morris water maze more quickly. This suggests that increased investment into cognitive development is likely associated with increased development time during immature stages. Inconsistent individual performance and motivation during the novel linear maze task highlights the difficulties of designing ecologically relevant learning tasks within a lab setting. The role of experimental design in understanding cognitive ability and learning in more natural circumstances is discussed.

Cytological studies of Antipodean Teleogryllus species and their hybrids (Orthoptera: Gryllidae)

1969 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hai-Choo Lim ◽  
V. R. Vickery ◽  
D. K. McE. Kevan
Keyword(s):  
Chromosome Numbers ◽  
Interspecific Hybrids ◽  
Tabular Form ◽  
Field Crickets ◽  
Teleogryllus Commodus ◽  
Polyploid Cells ◽  
Black Field ◽  
Different Populations ◽  
Intraspecific Hybrids

Testes from nymphs of the last three instars of 10 populations of Australasian "black" field crickets, Teleogryllus commodus and T. oceanicus, and some of their hybrids, were examined to determine the number and morphology of their chromosomes. All populations gave counts of 2n = 27 in the male. The karyotypes of different populations and the hybrids are presented in tabular form with illustrations and idiograms. Some anomalies in chromosome numbers and structure were found, notably the occurrence of polyploid cells in the hybrids of T. commodus populations and in the interspecific hybrids.Chromosomal polymorphism was found to be common, except in some non-continental populations. Lampbrush-like chromosomes were found in metaphase 1 of interspecific hybrids and in the intraspecific hybrids of T. oceanicus. Achromatic gaps occur in T. oceanicus and in a population of T. commodus from Victoria, Australia.

scholarly journals Australian black field crickets show changes in neural gene expression associated with socially-induced morphological, life-history, and behavioral plasticity

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Kasumovic ◽  
Zhiliang Chen ◽  
Marc R Wilkins
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Life History ◽  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Field Cricket ◽  
Phenotypic Traits ◽  
Functional Relationships ◽  
Teleogryllus Commodus ◽  
Black Field ◽  
Insight Into

Background: Ecological and evolutionary model organisms have provided extensive insight into the ecological triggers, adaptive benefits, and evolution of life-history driven developmental plasticity. Despite this, we still have a poor understanding of the underlying genetic changes that occur during shifts towards different developmental trajectories. The goal of this study is to determine whether we can identify underlying gene expression patterns that can describe the different life-history trajectories individuals follow in response to social cues of competition. To do this, we use the Australian black field cricket (Teleogryllus commodus), a species with sex-specific developmental trajectories moderated by the density and quality of calls heard during immaturity. In this study, we manipulated the social information males and females could hear by rearing individuals in either calling or silent treatments. We next used RNA-Seq to develop a reference transcriptome to study changes in brain gene expression at two points prior to sexual maturation. Results: We show accelerated development in both sexes when exposed to calling; changes were also seen in growth, lifespan, and reproductive effort. Functional relationships between genes and phenotypes were apparent from ontological enrichment analysis. We demonstrate that increased phenotypic expression was often associated with the expression of a greater number of genes with similar effect, thus providing a suite of candidate genes for future research in this and other invertebrate organisms. Conclusions: Our results provide interesting insight into the genomic underpinnings of developmental plasticity. We highlight the relationship between genes of known effect and behavioral and phenotypic traits that are under strong sexual selection in Teleogryllus commodus. We also demonstrate the variation in suites of genes associated with different developmental trajectories. Our results provide the opportunity for a genomic exploration of other evolutionary theories such as condition dependence and sexual conflict.

scholarly journals Effects of juvenile and adult diet on ageing and reproductive effort of male and female black field crickets,Teleogryllus commodus

2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 602-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Zajitschek ◽  
John Hunt ◽  
Michael D. Jennions ◽  
Matthew D. Hall ◽  
Robert C. Brooks
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Effort ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Field Crickets ◽  
Teleogryllus Commodus ◽  
Black Field ◽  
Adult Diet

Do female black field crickets Teleogryllus commodus benefit from polyandry?

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 1469-1477 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. D. JENNIONS ◽  
J. M. DRAYTON ◽  
R. BROOKS ◽  
J. HUNT
Keyword(s):  
Field Crickets ◽  
Teleogryllus Commodus ◽  
Black Field
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