Calmodulin as a downstream gene of octopamine-OAR α1 signalling mediates olfactory attraction in gregarious locusts

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Xu ◽  
L. Li ◽  
P. Yang ◽  
Z. Ma
Keyword(s):  
Gregarious Locusts

Notes on two Locusts of minor economic Importance in the Sudan

1932 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. B. Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Economic Importance ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Mutual Independence ◽  
Gregarious Locusts ◽  
Distinguishing Character

The so-called short-horned locusts are frequently, for convenience sake, regarded as comprising two classes: the true locusts (Arabic: Girad) and the short-horned grasshoppers (Arabic : Gabura). It is difficult, however, to find definitions of these classes by means of which every species may be correctly assigned to its true place. The swarming habits of the true locust are often cited as connoting this class only, involving, as these habits do, the periodical appearance of excessive numbers of both hoppers and adults. Moreover the true locust is gregarious, in that the hoppers move in bands from one place to another, and the adults fly in vast swarms often over long distances. The fact that the grasshoppers are solitary in habit and manifest mutual independence of action is often taken as their chief distinguishing character. There is no doubt that these features do partly separate these two classes of insects from each other, but there are certain species which appear to occupy a position intermediate between the two. One normally solitary may, in certain circumstances, multiply rapidly and give rise to hoppers, which in certain respects act like those true locusts. Moreover the winged adults may undertake short massed flights resembling the migrations of swarms. On the other hand the fact, now fully established, that most true gregarious locusts have their solitary forms, which never associate, places even them in this respect with the grasshoppers.

scholarly journals SURVIVAL OF MIGRATORY LOCUST AT DIFFERENT KEEPING CONDITIONS

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.B. Gerus ◽  
◽  
Y.S. Tokarev ◽  
G.R. Lednev ◽  
M.B. Levchenko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Survival Rate ◽  
Locusta Migratoria ◽  
Migratory Locust ◽  
Locusta Migratoria Migratorioides ◽  
Gregarious Locusts

In this article we studied the conditions for keeping two species of gregarious locusts: the African migratory locust (Locusta migratoria migratorioides) and the Asian migratory locust (Locusta migratoria migratoria) in open and shaded areas. Based on the data obtained, it is shown that the survival rate of insects of the non-diapausal subspecies was higher in comparison with the obligate monovoltine.

Plasticity in the Visual System Is Correlated With a Change in Lifestyle of Solitarious and Gregarious Locusts

2004 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Matheson ◽  
Stephen M. Rogers ◽  
Holger G. Krapp
Keyword(s):  
Visual System ◽  
Flight Control ◽  
Schistocerca Gregaria ◽  
Movement Detector ◽  
Time To Collision ◽  
Angular Extent ◽  
Behavioral Phase ◽  
Contralateral Movement ◽  
Gregarious Locusts ◽  
And Behavior

We demonstrate pronounced differences in the visual system of a polyphenic locust species that can change reversibly between two forms (phases), which vary in morphology and behavior. At low population densities, individuals of Schistocerca gregaria develop into the solitarious phase, are cryptic, and tend to avoid other locusts. At high densities, individuals develop instead into the swarm-forming gregarious phase. We analyzed in both phases the responses of an identified visual interneuron, the descending contralateral movement detector (DCMD), which responds to approaching objects. We demonstrate that habituation of DCMD is fivefold stronger in solitarious locusts. In both phases, the mean time of peak firing relative to the time to collision nevertheless occurs with a similar characteristic delay after an approaching object reaches a particular angular extent on the retina. Variation in the time of peak firing is greater in solitarious locusts, which have lower firing rates. Threshold angle and delay are therefore conserved despite changes in habituation or behavioral phase state. The different rates of habituation should contribute to different predator escape strategies or flight control for locusts living either in a swarm or as isolated individuals. For example, increased variability in the habituated responses of solitarious locusts should render their escape behaviors less predictable. Relative resistance to habituation in gregarious locusts should permit the continued responsiveness required to avoid colliding with other locusts in a swarm. These results will permit us to analyze neuronal plasticity in a model system with a well-defined and controllable behavioral context.

scholarly journals Spatiotemporal Receptive Field Properties of a Looming-Sensitive Neuron in Solitarious and Gregarious Phases of the Desert Locust

2010 ◽  
Vol 103 (2) ◽  
pp. 779-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen M. Rogers ◽  
George W. J. Harston ◽  
Fleur Kilburn-Toppin ◽  
Thomas Matheson ◽  
Malcolm Burrows ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Schistocerca Gregaria ◽  
Visual Space ◽  
Lifestyle Changes ◽  
Movement Detector ◽  
Local Motion ◽  
Gregarious Locusts ◽  
Spatiotemporal Receptive Field ◽  
Field Organization ◽  
Receptive Field Organization

Desert locusts ( Schistocerca gregaria ) can transform reversibly between the swarming gregarious phase and a solitarious phase, which avoids other locusts. This transformation entails dramatic changes in morphology, physiology, and behavior. We have used the lobula giant movement detector (LGMD) and its postsynaptic target, the descending contralateral movement detector (DCMD), which are visual interneurons that detect looming objects, to analyze how differences in the visual ecology of the two phases are served by altered neuronal function. Solitarious locusts had larger eyes and a greater degree of binocular overlap than those of gregarious locusts. The receptive field to looming stimuli had a large central region of nearly equal response spanning 120° × 60° in both phases. The DCMDs of gregarious locusts responded more strongly than solitarious locusts and had a small caudolateral focus of even further sensitivity. More peripherally, the response was reduced in both phases, particularly ventrally, with gregarious locusts showing greater proportional decrease. Gregarious locusts showed less habituation to repeated looming stimuli along the eye equator than did solitarious locusts. By contrast, in other parts of the receptive field the degree of habituation was similar in both phases. The receptive field organization to looming stimuli contrasts strongly with the receptive field organization of the same neurons to nonlooming local-motion stimuli, which show much more pronounced regional variation. The DCMDs of both gregarious and solitarious locusts are able to detect approaching objects from across a wide expanse of visual space, but phase-specific changes in the spatiotemporal receptive field are linked to lifestyle changes.

Predicting the Phase State of the Abundance Dynamics of Harmful Non-gregarious Locusts in Northern Kazakhstan and Substantiation of Protective Measures

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 1535-1543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurmet Serikovich Baibussenov ◽  
Amageldy Taskalievich Sarbaev ◽  
Valery Kenessovich Azhbenov ◽  
Vili Borisova Harizanova
Keyword(s):  
Phase State ◽  
Protective Measures ◽  
Abundance Dynamics ◽  
Northern Kazakhstan ◽  
Gregarious Locusts

scholarly journals Red and black: A β-carotene-binding protein carrying a red pigment regulates body-color transition in locusts

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meiling Yang ◽  
Yanli Wang ◽  
Qing Liu ◽  
Zhikang Liu ◽  
Feng Jiang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Binding Protein ◽  
Ventral Surface ◽  
Red Pigment ◽  
Body Color ◽  
Migratory Locust ◽  
Color Palette ◽  
Color Changes ◽  
Variable Environments ◽  
Gregarious Locusts ◽  
Β Carotene

AbstractChanges of body color have important effects for animals in adapting to variable environments. The migratory locust exhibits body color polyphenism between solitary and gregarious individuals, with the former displaying a uniform green coloration and the latter having a prominent pattern of black dorsal and brown ventral surface. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the density-dependent body color changes of conspecific locusts remain largely unknown. Here, we found that up regulation of β-carotene-binding protein promotes the accumulation of red pigment, which added to the green color palette present in solitary locusts changes it from green to black, and that down regulation of this protein led to the reverse, changing the color of gregarious locusts from black to green. Our results provide insight that color changes of locusts are dependent on variation in the red β-carotene pigment binding to βCBP. This finding of animal coloration corresponds with trichromatic theory of color vision.

scholarly journals Arousal Facilitates Collision Avoidance Mediated by a Looming Sensitive Visual Neuron in a Flying Locust

2008 ◽  
Vol 100 (2) ◽  
pp. 670-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Claire Rind ◽  
Roger D. Santer ◽  
Geraldine A. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Physiological State ◽  
Object Motion ◽  
Arousal State ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Vision For Action ◽  
Octopamine Receptor ◽  
Movement Detectors ◽  
Contralateral Movement ◽  
Gregarious Locusts

Locusts have two large collision-detecting neurons, the descending contralateral movement detectors (DCMDs) that signal object approach and trigger evasive glides during flight. We sought to investigate whether vision for action, when the locust is in an aroused state rather than a passive viewer, significantly alters visual processing in this collision-detecting pathway. To do this we used two different approaches to determine how the arousal state of a locust affects the prolonged periods of high-frequency spikes typical of the DCMD response to approaching objects that trigger evasive glides. First, we manipulated arousal state in the locust by applying a brief mechanical stimulation to the hind leg; this type of change of state occurs when gregarious locusts accumulate in high-density swarms. Second, we examined DCMD responses during flight because flight produces a heightened physiological state of arousal in locusts. When arousal was induced by either method we found that the DCMD response recovered from a previously habituated state; that it followed object motion throughout approach; and—most important—that it was significantly more likely to generate the maintained spike frequencies capable of evoking gliding dives even with extremely short intervals (1.8 s) between approaches. Overall, tethered flying locusts responded to 41% of simulated approaching objects (sets of 6 with 1.8 s ISI). When we injected epinastine, the neuronal octopamine receptor antagonist, into the hemolymph responsiveness declined to 12%, suggesting that octopamine plays a significant role in maintaining responsiveness of the DCMD and the locust to visual stimuli during flight.

scholarly journals Solitary and Gregarious Locusts Differ in Circadian Rhythmicity of a Visual Output Neuron

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 196-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Gaten ◽  
Stephen J. Huston ◽  
Harold B. Dowse ◽  
Tom Matheson
Keyword(s):  
Circadian Rhythmicity ◽  
Output Neuron ◽  
Gregarious Locusts
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