Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T04:25:47.357Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Solitarization in the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria (Forskål) (Orthoptera: Acrididae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Sylvia D. Gillett
Sylvia D. Gillett
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of York, Heslington, York, YO1 5DD, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The rate at which gregarious nymphs of Schistocerca gregaria (Forskål) lose the tendency to form groups after different periods of isolation was measured. There was a marked loss of social grouping after isolation for 24 h. The fall in level of grouping was highly significantly correlated with the number of days the nymphs had been isolated. Further experiments showed that the extent of loss of grouping behaviour could be significantly modified by the length of time the nymphs spent in crowded conditions before they were isolated, but the density during previous crowding did not have a consistent effect on reduction in grouping. It had been previously considered that S. gregaria nymphs lose very little of their gregarious tendency once it is acquired; this is now shown not to be the case. The behaviour of this species is very responsive to the social environment, whether the locusts are learning to form groups or are losing that tendency.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 78 , Issue 4 , December 1988 , pp. 623 - 631
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ellis, P. E. (1953). Social aggregation and gregarious behaviour in hoppers of Locusta migratoria migratorioides (R. & F.).—Behaviour 5, 225–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, P. E. (1956). Differences in social aggregation in two species of locust.—Nature, Lond. 178, 1007.Google Scholar
Ellis, P. E. (1962). Behavioural mechanisms in locust gregariousness.—Symp. Genet. Biol. ltal. 10, 225–234.Google Scholar
Ellis, P. E. (1963). Changes in the social aggregation of locust hoppers with changes in rearing conditions.—Anim. Behav. 11, 152–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, P. E. & Pearce, A. (1962). Innate and learned behaviour patterns that lead to group formation in locust hoppers.—Anim. Behav. 10, 305–318.Google Scholar
Gillett, S. D. (1968). Airborne factor affecting the grouping behaviour of locusts.—Nature, Lond. 218, 782–783.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillett, S. D. (1973). Social determinants of aggregation behaviour in adults of the desert locust.—Anim. Behav. 21, 599–606.Google Scholar
Gillett, S. D. (1975 a). Changes in the social behaviour of the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria, in response to the gregarizing pheromone.—Anim. Behav. 23, 494–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillett, S. D. (1975 b). The action of the gregarisation pheromone on five non-behavioural characters of phase polymorphism of the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria (Forskål).—Acrida 4, 137–149.Google Scholar
Gillett, S. D. (1983). Primer pheromones and polymorphism in the desert locust.—Anim. Behav. 31, 221–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillett, S. D. & Phillips, M. L. (1977). Faeces as a source of a locust gregarisation stimulus. Effects on social aggregation and on cuticular colour of nymphs of the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria (Forsk.).—Acrida 6, 279–286.Google Scholar
Hunter-Jones, P. (1966). Rearing and breeding locusts in the laboratory.—12 pp. London, Anti Locust Res. Cent.Google Scholar
Uvarov, B. (1966). Grasshoppers and locusts, Vol. 1.—481 pp. Cambridge, Univ. Press.Google Scholar