Clipmarks | Insect behaviour Clips

The wasp that walks cockroaches

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:17:50 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: More icky wasp science

yet another demonstration of the amazing tactics used by these macabre parents to provision their young with food

grubs feed on the bodies of cockroaches supplied by their mother. When a female wasp finds a roach, she stings it twice - once in its mid-section to immobilise its front legs, and the second directly into its brain. There, she pumps in a venom that stupefies the roach and changes its behaviour.

not paralysed but it moves sluggishly and shows no desire to flee from danger. In this befuddled state, the jewel wasp can grab the roach by its antennae and walk it around like a dog on a leash. The wasp leads its roach to its nest, where it seals it up and lays an egg on its belly. Even as the larva hatches and starts to eat the roach alive, the hapless insect doesn't struggle or fight

have discovered how the wasp's venom keeps its victim so sedate but otherwise mobile and healthy

cockroaches can be restored to their active ways by injecting

octopamine (see video

[Video]

Konrad Lorenz

Thu, 22 May 2008 20:22:09 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad
clipper's remarks: A short piece of a rather long and interesting biography

Clip Source: www.age-of-the-sage.org

Konrad Lorenz biography
Ethology - Imprinting

Konrad Lorenz (Konrad Zacharias Lorenz) was born on November 7, 1903 in Vienna, Austria. As a little boy, he loved animals and had a collection that included fish, dogs, monkeys, insects, ducks, and geese. His interest in animal behaviour was intense. When he was 10 years old, Lorenz became aware of the existence of the Theory of Evolution through reading a book by Wilhelm Bölsche in which he was fascinated by a picture of an Archaeopteryx. Evolution gave him insight - his father had explained that the word "insect" was derived from the notches, the "incisions" between the segments - if reptiles could become birds, annelid worms could develop into insects.

Are Individuals like Molecules in a Social Matrix?

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:23:40 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/complexity/models/antcolonies/page2.html

takes you to a fun interactive model with an ant coloby; you control variables. Clear accompanying text for explanation and discussion.

Clip Source: www.sciencedirect.com

striking structures (e.g. nest architecture, trail networks) of insect societies may seem familiar to many of us, the understanding of pattern formation still constitutes a challenging problem. Over the last two decades, self-organization has dramatically changed our view on how collective decision-making and structures may emerge out of a population of ant workers having each their own individuality as well as a limited access to information. A variety of collective behaviour spontaneously outcome from multiple interactions between nestmates, even when there is no directing influence imposed by an external template, a pacemaker or a leader. By focussing this review on foraging structures, we show that ant societies display some properties which are usually considered in physico-chemical systems, as typical signatures of self-organization

parsimony and simplicity of behavioural rules at the individual level

efficient processing of information, energy and matter within the whole colony.

Tags: complexity theory, emergence, insect behaviour

I'd give it up too!!!

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 21:43:01 GMT

clipped by: mooner-one

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Gecko 'begs' insect for honeydew

Gecko and bug's bizarre relationship revealed

A bizarre relationship between a gecko and a sap-sucking insect has been caught on camera for the first time.

and a sap-sucking insect has been caught on camera for the first time.

The day gecko, which lives in the forests of Madagascar, has been recorded begging a bug for its dinner.

The lizard repeatedly nods its head at the insect, called a plant hopper, until it flicks over small balls of honeydew for the gecko to dine upon.

It is not yet understood why the insect so willingly offers up honeydew at the lizard's behest.

Some believe that the presence of the hungry geckos may keep other predators away from the insect.

The footage was recorded for the BBC One series Life In Cold Blood.

It took the crew several attempts to capture this strange behaviour on camera as plant hoppers are very well camouflaged.

Turning insects off sex might kill pests

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 11:16:29 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Birth control for mosquitoes. Ruins their sex drive and their appetite

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Ben Hirschler

Turning off a sex switch triggered when female insects mate may be a smart and green way of controlling pests in future, scientists say

They've found a molecular receptor, or switch, common to all insects that sets off post-mating behaviours like egg-laying

"If you had an inhibitor of this receptor then you could interfere with its function and it would, in effect, be a birth control pill for insects," says Dr Barry Dickson from the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna, Austria

Dickson and colleagues publish their research today online in the journal Nature

Many female insects undergo profound changes in behaviour after mating

Some start laying multiple eggs. Female mosquitoes,

seek out a meal of blood, often spreading malaria in the process.

Now Dickson and his colleagues have identified the receptor for the molecule in fruit flies and shown it is key to post-mating behaviour.

Females lacking the receptor continue to behave as virgins, even after mating, they report.

Tags: mosquito, insect, pest, sex, birth, control

Cane toads cannibalise their young

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 07:48:00 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: What the cane toads don't eat they poison. Cannibalism could be one of their redeeming features.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Anna Salleh

Cane toads wiggle their toes to lure their young, then eat them up in an act of cannibalism, Australian researchers say.

They say the young toads move towards the adults, possibly mistaking the wiggling toes for a tasty morsel, like an insect.

Instead the youngsters themselves end up as the tasty morsel.

But harnessing this cannibalistic behaviour may have some benefits, at least in Australia, where cane toads are an invasive pest.

Scientists say it could be the key to getting cane toads to eat themselves out of existence.

Professor Rick Shine of the University of Sydney and PhD student Mattias Hagman will report their findings in the journal Animal Behaviour.

The researchers noticed that when baby toads are around adult toads, the adults start wiggling the middle toes on their hind feet.

See a video of cane toads wiggling their toes here (Real Media) or here (Windows Media).

Two males mating with a female, which often drowns in such a situation (Image: Michael Crossland)

Tags: cane toad, reproduction, toes, plague, invasive species, cannibalism

Termites are actually social cockroaches: study

Sun, 20 May 2007 01:29:38 GMT

clipped by: gingembre
clipper's remarks: DNA analysis reveals some unexpected relationships among animals, including this startling discovery: The order Isoptera is no more--termites are now more properly classified as members of Order Blattodea, along with the cockroaches. Remarkable creatures, all.

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Research at the Natural History Museum shows that termites belong to a new family of cockroaches.

Insect experts at the Natural History Museum reveal that termites, the creatures famous for building enormous mounds and eating houses, are in fact cockroaches.

Termites have long baffled scientists as to their place in the natural world and their relationship with other insects. Although they are part of a large 'superorder' that includes cockroaches, they were classified separately in a group called Isoptera .

This new research puts termites into the same group as cockroaches, (Blattodea). Termites are now classed as a new family of cockroaches called Termitidae . Isoptera is no longer valid.

Perhaps the most famous social insects, ants, evolved from solitary predatory wasps

Termites' diet and behaviour is very different from cockroaches but similar to ants and bees.

Death of an order: a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study confirms that termites are eusocial cockroaches

Tags: dna, termites, cockroaches, research, evolution, classification, genetics, insects, zoology, biology

Insect Societies Employ Egg Police

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 21:24:18 GMT

clipped by: knslyr

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Would better policing reduce crime? It does in some insect societies. The apparently harmonious behaviour of worker honeybees and common wasps is all down to a watchful police force.

The answer turned out to be the "egg police". Wenseleers and Ratnieks found that the more effective the policing - where the queen or worker "police" eat worker-laid eggs - the lower the likelihood of a renegade worker laying its own egg (Nature, vol 444, p 50). "In honeybees the policing was so good, with 98 to 100 per cent of worker-laid eggs killed, that less than one in a thousand workers tried to lay an egg," says Ratnieks.

Tags: insects, honey bees, wasps, social behaviour, society, sociology, egg police