DOCSLIB.ORG

Failure to Launch? the Influence of Limb Autotomy on the Escape Behavior of a Semiaquatic Grasshopper Paroxya Atlantica

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Failure to Launch? the Influence of Limb Autotomy on the Escape Behavior of a Semiaquatic Grasshopper Paroxya Atlantica Behavioral Ecology doi:10.1093/beheco/arr045 Advance Access publication 4 May 2011 Original Article Failure to launch? The influence of limb autotomy on the escape behavior of a semiaquatic grasshopper Paroxya atlantica (Acrididae) Philip W. Batemana,b,c and Patricia A. Flemingb aDepartment of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa, bSchool of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia, and cArchbold Biological Station, Lake Placid, PO Box 2057, Lake Placid, FL 33862, USA Downloaded from Autotomy is an extreme escape tactic where an animal sheds an appendage to escape predation. Many species alter their behavior postautotomy to compensate for this loss. We examined the escape behavior in the field of a semiaquatic grasshopper (Paroxya atlantica) that could escape either by flight and landing in vegetation or flight and landing in water and swimming to safety. We predicted that animals missing a hind limb would be more reactive (i.e., have longer flight initiation distances; FID) and would beheco.oxfordjournals.org prefer to escape to vegetation rather than to water as loss of a limb is likely to reduce swimming ability. However, our predictions were not supported. FID in autotomized animals was not different from that in intact animals. Furthermore, although autotom- ized grasshoppers paused more often and swam slower than intact individuals, autotomized grasshoppers more often escaped to water, reaching it via shorter flights that were lateral to the approach of the observer (intact grasshoppers more often flew directly away from the observer). We also noted differences in behavior before disturbance: Autotomised animals perched lower on emergent vegetation than did intact ones, presumably in readiness for escape via water, and also showed a greater likelihood to at Murdoch University on June 19, 2011 hide (squirreling) from the approaching observer prior to launch into flight. It seems likely that the reduced flight distance and greater propensity to land in water for autotomized P. atlantica may reflect a failure to launch from their perch due to loss of a jumping back leg. Key words: distance fled, escape tactics, escape trajectory, flight initiation distance, Orthoptera, predation risk. [Behav Ecol 22:763–768 (2011)] INTRODUCTION becoming alert to approaching threats and monitoring them until deciding to retreat to their burrows. Furthermore, Wong here is an extensive and growing body of research on et al. (2005) found that fiddler crabs (U. pugilator) would often predator-induced flight behavior of multiple taxa. At the T retreat to burrows if they saw conspecifics reacting to threats, heart of these studies is the optimal escape theory of Ydenberg and Dill (1986), which predicts that animals should even if they did not see the threat themselves. FID of wolf spi- balance costs and benefits of fleeing from an approaching ders (Hogna carolinensis) is shorter for slower individuals, sug- predator, moving when costs of escaping are equal to costs gesting that slower spiders rely more on crypsis than do faster of not fleeing. Subsequent research on flight optimization individuals (Nelson and Formanowicz 2005). Cooper (2006) behavior has examined the influence of many variables on examined the flight behavior of the acridid grasshopper Dissos- flight initiation distance (FID) (often relying on the observer teira carolina in the field and found that predator approach as the predator), including distance to refuge, distance to speed, directness of approach, and repeated approach influ- conspecifics, sex, sexual, or ontogenetic differences in ence flight behavior. These studies demonstrate that inverte- camouflage, previous experience with predators, speed of brate behavior conforms to antipredator escape decision approach of the predator or number of predators (see theory (Ydenberg and Dill 1986), suggesting a broad applica- Stankowich and Blumstein 2005; Cooper and Frederick bility to invertebrates as well as vertebrates. 2007; Stankowich 2008 for reviews and discussion). Although there is an extensive literature on antipredator es- Although much of the research published on threat reaction cape studies, one aspect that has not received a great deal of and predator escape behavior is biased toward vertebrates, attention to date is the potential effect of compromised state a number of studies have examined invertebrate models. on escape behavior (Stankowich 2009; Cooper and Frederick Hemmi (2005a, 2005b) found that fiddler crabs (Uca vomeris) 2010). Autotomy, the voluntary shedding of a body part, react to threats in much the same way as do vertebrates, usually in response to predation, is observed in a variety of invertebrate and vertebrate (particularly lizard) taxa (Fleming Address correspondence to P.W. Bateman. E-mail: pwbateman@ et al. 2007; Bateman and Fleming 2009). The autotomy of zoology.up.ac.za. a body part allows escape from a predator, but this escape Received 8 April 2010; revised 17 January 2011; accepted 31 comes at a cost, for example, loss of fat stores, locomotory January 2011. ability, intraspecific competitive or mate attraction ability, com- promised foraging, increased vulnerability to attacks, etc. (see Ó The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected] 764 Behavioral Ecology Clause and Capaldi 2006; Maginnis 2006; Fleming et al. 2007; MATERIALS AND METHODS Bateman and Fleming 2009 for recent reviews). Autotomy is Populations of P. atlantica were found in isolated patches of a good model mechanism to examine flight decision optimi- reed and long emergent grasses around a small suburban lake zation because comparisons can be made between intact (i.e., (circumference ’1.3 km) in central Florida, USA. The ‘‘unharmed’’) individuals and autotomized animals that have waterside vegetation was fragmented by beaches and mown undergone a nonfatal ‘‘wounding.’’ sections of lawns, but P. atlantica were frequent all around There are 3 reasons to expect that autotomized individu- the lake except on bare sand. als may demonstrate different antipredator behavior com- Grasshoppers were found by listening for stridulation and pared with their intact conspecifics: firstly, once a body part scanning emergent vegetation with binoculars. Once located, has been lost, the animal cannot then use autotomy of that each grasshopper was examined through binoculars to see if body part as a defense in a future encounter (until such it had autotomized a rear hind leg. This method was only time as the body part regenerates, if it does) (Arnold occasionally successful, and so the individual was followed 1988). Secondly, a number of studies have demonstrated that autotomy of a body part (caudal lamellae, limb, or tail) onceithadfledandeithercaughtorexaminedatclose compromises locomotion (reviewed by Fleming et al. 2007; range which had the advantage that the majority of data Bateman and Fleming 2009). For example, in invertebrates, up to that point were collected ‘‘blind’’ to the animals’ con- damselfly nymphs face a significant reduction in swimming dition. Data from any grasshopper that could not be speed after autotomy of a caudal lamella or even experimen- followed and definitively identified as ‘‘intact’’ or tal reduction in lamella size (Robinson, Hayworth, et al. ‘‘autotomized’’ were discarded. Of the 57 individuals exam- 1991; Burnside and Robinson 1995; McPeek et al. 1996; ined, 29.8% (17) were identified as missing a hind limb, but Stoks 1999b; Gyssels and Stoks 2005). Loss of a single leg unlike a field population of G. bimaculatus (Bateman and in some harvestmen and spiders does not reduce sprint Fleming 2005), no grasshoppers were found missing front or middle legs or both hind legs. speed but loss of 3 does (Guffey 1999; Amaya et al. 2001; Downloaded from Brueseke et al. 2001; Apontes and Brown 2005). Loss of The vegetation thinned from the shore into the water, and it a single leg, however, reduces stick insect mobility (Carlberg was difficult to locate and approach grasshoppers in the 1984) or reduces running speed in the gryllid crickets Gryl- thickest parts of the vegetation as the reeds and grasses (which were over 1 m in height) bent toward the focal animal as the lus bimaculatus and Acheta domesticus (Bateman and Fleming beheco.oxfordjournals.org 2005, 2006a) and increases energetic costs of locomotion in observer (P.W.B.) approached, influencing FID. Therefore, G. bimaculatus (Fleming and Bateman 2007). Locusts only grasshoppers in the more sparse emergent vegetation (Schistocerca gregaria) show a 40% decrease in energy re- were approached (a ;10 m band around the shores of the leased when jumping after the loss of a hind leg and lake). This meant that all these grasshoppers were above water a 27% decrease in distance jumped (Norman 1995). but surrounded by vegetation. Following a slightly modified Thirdly, animals that have lost a body part have already version of Cooper’s (2006) methodology, the observer at Murdoch University on June 19, 2011 experienced an attempted predation event. Autotomy of approached a grasshopper by wading slowly within the a limb can lead to lasting changes in any behavior that vegetation parallel to the open water. At a distance of about may further expose the autotomized individual, as has been 5 m from the grasshopper, the observer stopped, waited for shown for latency to emerge and to resume calling
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Mantodea (Insecta), with a Review of Aspects of Functional Morphology and Biology
    aua o ew eaa Ramsay, G. W. 1990: Mantodea (Insecta), with a review of aspects of functional morphology and biology. Fauna of New Zealand 19, 96 pp. Editorial Advisory Group (aoimes mae o a oaioa asis MEMBERS AT DSIR PLANT PROTECTION Mou Ae eseac Cee iae ag Aucka ew eaa Ex officio ieco — M ogwo eae Sysemaics Gou — M S ugae Co-opted from within Systematics Group Dr B. A ooway Κ Cosy UIESIIES EESEAIE R. M. Emeso Eomoogy eame ico Uiesiy Caeuy ew eaa MUSEUMS EESEAIE M R. L. ama aua isoy Ui aioa Museum o iae ag Weigo ew eaa OESEAS REPRESENTATIVE J. F. awece CSIO iisio o Eomoogy GO o 1700, Caea Ciy AC 2601, Ausaia Series Editor M C ua Sysemaics Gou SI a oecio Mou Ae eseac Cee iae ag Aucka ew eaa aua o ew eaa Number 19 Maoea (Iseca wi a eiew o asecs o ucioa mooogy a ioogy G W Ramsay SI a oecio M Ae eseac Cee iae ag Aucka ew eaa emoa us wig mooogy eosigma cooaio siuaio acousic sesiiiy eece eaiou egeeaio eaio aasiism aoogy a ie Caaoguig-i-uicaio ciaio AMSAY GW Maoea (Iseca – Weigo SI uisig 199 (aua o ew eaa ISS 111-533 ; o 19 IS -77-51-1 I ie II Seies UC 59575(931 Date of publication: see cover of subsequent numbers Suggese om o ciaio amsay GW 199 Maoea (Iseca wi a eiew o asecs o ucioa mooogy a ioogy Fauna of New Zealand [no.] 19. —— Fauna o New Zealand is eae o uicaio y e Seies Eio usig comue- ase e ocessig ayou a ase ie ecoogy e Eioia Aisoy Gou a e Seies Eio ackowege e oowig co-oeaio SI UISIG awco – sueisio o oucio a isiuio M C Maews – assisace wi oucio a makeig Ms A Wig – assisace wi uiciy a isiuio MOU AE ESEAC CEE SI Miss M oy
    [Show full text]
  • Insect Survey of Four Longleaf Pine Preserves
    A SURVEY OF THE MOTHS, BUTTERFLIES, AND GRASSHOPPERS OF FOUR NATURE CONSERVANCY PRESERVES IN SOUTHEASTERN NORTH CAROLINA Stephen P. Hall and Dale F. Schweitzer November 15, 1993 ABSTRACT Moths, butterflies, and grasshoppers were surveyed within four longleaf pine preserves owned by the North Carolina Nature Conservancy during the growing season of 1991 and 1992. Over 7,000 specimens (either collected or seen in the field) were identified, representing 512 different species and 28 families. Forty-one of these we consider to be distinctive of the two fire- maintained communities principally under investigation, the longleaf pine savannas and flatwoods. An additional 14 species we consider distinctive of the pocosins that occur in close association with the savannas and flatwoods. Twenty nine species appear to be rare enough to be included on the list of elements monitored by the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program (eight others in this category have been reported from one of these sites, the Green Swamp, but were not observed in this study). Two of the moths collected, Spartiniphaga carterae and Agrotis buchholzi, are currently candidates for federal listing as Threatened or Endangered species. Another species, Hemipachnobia s. subporphyrea, appears to be endemic to North Carolina and should also be considered for federal candidate status. With few exceptions, even the species that seem to be most closely associated with savannas and flatwoods show few direct defenses against fire, the primary force responsible for maintaining these communities. Instead, the majority of these insects probably survive within this region due to their ability to rapidly re-colonize recently burned areas from small, well-dispersed refugia.
    [Show full text]
  • Tail Autotomy Plays No Important Role in Influencing Locomotor Performance and Antipredator Behavior in a Cursorial Gecko
    ethology international journal of behavioural biology Ethology Tail Autotomy Plays No Important Role in Influencing Locomotor Performance and Anti-Predator Behavior in a Cursorial Gecko Hong-Liang Lu* , Guo-Hua Ding , Ping Ding* & Xiang Ji * Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife of the Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangz- hou 310058, Zhejiang, China Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210046, Jiangsu, China Correspondence Abstract Xiang Ji, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life We used the frog-eyed sand gecko (Teratoscincus scincus) as a model sys- Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing tem to evaluate the locomotor costs of tail loss, and to examine whether 210046, Jiangsu, China. tailless geckos use alternative anti-predator behavior to compensate for E-mail: [email protected], xiangji150@ the costs of tail loss. Of the 16 field-captured geckos, eight were used as hotmail.com experimental animals and the remaining ones as controls. Locomotor performance, activity level and anti-predator behavior were measured Received: January 21, 2010 Initial acceptance: February 22, 2010 for experimental geckos before and after the tail-removing treatment. Final acceptance: March 15, 2010 Control geckos never undergoing the tail-removing manipulation were (J. Kotiaho) measured to serve as controls for the measurements taken at the same time for experimental geckos. Experimental geckos did not differ from doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0310.2010.01780.x controls in activity level before they underwent the tail-removing manipulation, but became less active thereafter.
    [Show full text]
  • Characterization of Arm Autotomy in the Octopus, Abdopus Aculeatus (D’Orbigny, 1834)
    Characterization of Arm Autotomy in the Octopus, Abdopus aculeatus (d’Orbigny, 1834) By Jean Sagman Alupay A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Integrative Biology in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Roy L. Caldwell, Chair Professor David Lindberg Professor Damian Elias Fall 2013 ABSTRACT Characterization of Arm Autotomy in the Octopus, Abdopus aculeatus (d’Orbigny, 1834) By Jean Sagman Alupay Doctor of Philosophy in Integrative Biology University of California, Berkeley Professor Roy L. Caldwell, Chair Autotomy is the shedding of a body part as a means of secondary defense against a predator that has already made contact with the organism. This defense mechanism has been widely studied in a few model taxa, specifically lizards, a few groups of arthropods, and some echinoderms. All of these model organisms have a hard endo- or exo-skeleton surrounding the autotomized body part. There are several animals that are capable of autotomizing a limb but do not exhibit the same biological trends that these model organisms have in common. As a result, the mechanisms that underlie autotomy in the hard-bodied animals may not apply for soft bodied organisms. A behavioral ecology approach was used to study arm autotomy in the octopus, Abdopus aculeatus. Investigations concentrated on understanding the mechanistic underpinnings and adaptive value of autotomy in this soft-bodied animal. A. aculeatus was observed in the field on Mactan Island, Philippines in the dry and wet seasons, and compared with populations previously studied in Indonesia.
    [Show full text]
  • Science, Sentience, and Animal Welfare
    WellBeing International WBI Studies Repository 1-2013 Science, Sentience, and Animal Welfare Robert C. Jones California State University, Chico, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/ethawel Part of the Animal Studies Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, and the Nature and Society Relations Commons Recommended Citation Jones, R. C. (2013). Science, sentience, and animal welfare. Biology and Philosophy, 1-30. This material is brought to you for free and open access by WellBeing International. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of the WBI Studies Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Science, Sentience, and Animal Welfare Robert C. Jones California State University, Chico KEYWORDS animal, welfare, ethics, pain, sentience, cognition, agriculture, speciesism, biomedical research ABSTRACT I sketch briefly some of the more influential theories concerned with the moral status of nonhuman animals, highlighting their biological/physiological aspects. I then survey the most prominent empirical research on the physiological and cognitive capacities of nonhuman animals, focusing primarily on sentience, but looking also at a few other morally relevant capacities such as self-awareness, memory, and mindreading. Lastly, I discuss two examples of current animal welfare policy, namely, animals used in industrialized food production and in scientific research. I argue that even the most progressive current welfare policies lag behind, are ignorant of, or arbitrarily disregard the science on sentience and cognition. Introduction The contemporary connection between research on animal1 cognition and the moral status of animals goes back almost 40 years to the publication of two influential books: Donald Griffin’s The Question of Animal Awareness: Evolutionary Continuity of Mental Experience (1976) and Peter Singer’s groundbreaking Animal Liberation (1975).
    [Show full text]
  • Creating Economically and Ecologically Sustainable Pollinator Habitat District 2 Demonstration Research Project Summary Updated for Site Visit in April 2019
    Creating Economically and Ecologically Sustainable Pollinator Habitat District 2 Demonstration Research Project Summary Updated for Site Visit in April 2019 The PIs are most appreciative for identification assistance provided by: Arian Farid and Alan R. Franck, Director and former Director, resp., University of South Florida Herbarium, Tampa, FL; Edwin Bridges, Botanical and Ecological Consultant; Floyd Griffith, Botanist; and Eugene Wofford, Director, University of Tennessee Herbarium, Knoxville, TN Investigators Rick Johnstone and Robin Haggie (IVM Partners, 501-C-3 non-profit; http://www.ivmpartners.org/); Larry Porter and John Nettles (ret.), District 2 Wildflower Coordinator; Jeff Norcini, FDOT State Wildflower Specialist Cooperator Rick Owen (Imperiled Butterflies of Florida Work Group – North) Objective Evaluate a cost-effective strategy for creating habitat for pollinators/beneficial insects in the ROW beyond the back-slope. Rationale • Will aid FDOT in developing a strategy to create pollinator habitat per the federal BEE Act and FDOT’s Wildflower Program • Will demonstrate that FDOT can simultaneously • Create sustainable pollinator habitat in an economical and ecological manner • Reduce mowing costs • Part of national effort coordinated by IVM Partners, who has • Established or will establish similar projects on roadside or utility ROWS in Alabama, Arkansas, Maryland, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Idaho, Montana, Virginia, West Virginia, and Tennessee; studies previously conducted in Arizona, Delaware, Michigan, and New Jersey • Developed partnerships with US Fish & Wildlife Service, Army Corps of Engineers, US Geological Survey, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage, The Navajo Nation, The Wildlife Habitat Council, The Pollinator Partnership, Progressive Solutions, Bayer Crop Sciences, Universities of Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia, and the EPA.
    [Show full text]
  • Do Avian Predators Avoid Autotomous Tails?
    Cent. Eur. J. Biol. • 6(2) • 2011 • 293-299 DOI: 10.2478/s11535-010-0119-9 Central European Journal of Biology Seeing through the lizard’s trick: do avian predators avoid autotomous tails? Research Article Bart Vervust*, Hans Van Loy, Raoul Van Damme Laboratory for Functional Morphology, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, B-2610 Wilrijk, Belgium Received 24 June 2010; Accepted 16 November 2010 Abstract: Counter-adaptations of predators towards their prey are a far less investigated phenomenon in predator-prey interactions. Caudal autotomy is generally considered an effective last-resort mechanism for evading predators. However, in victim-exploiter relationships, the efficacy of a strategy will obviously depend on the antagonist’s ability to counter it. In the logic of the predator-prey arms race, one would expect predators to develop attack strategies that minimize the chance of autotomy of the prey and damage on the predator. We tested whether avian predators preferred grasping lizards by their head. We constructed plasticine models of the Italian wall lizard (Podarcis sicula) and placed them in natural habitat of the species. Judging from counts of beak marks on the models, birds preferentially attack the head and might also avoid the tail and limb regions. While a preference for the head might not necessarily demonstrate tail and limb avoidance, this topic needs further exploration because it suggests that even unspecialised avian predators may see through the lizard’s trick-of-the-tail. This result may have implications for our understanding of the evolution of this peculiar defensive system and the loss or decreased tendency to shed the tail on island systems with the absence of terrestrial predators.
    [Show full text]
  • Preliminary Checklist of the Orthopteroid Insects (Blattodea, Mantodea, Phasmatodea,Orthoptera) of Texas
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Center for Systematic Entomology, Gainesville, Insecta Mundi Florida March 2001 Preliminary checklist of the orthopteroid insects (Blattodea, Mantodea, Phasmatodea,Orthoptera) of Texas John A. Stidham Garland, TX Thomas A. Stidham University of California, Berkeley, CA Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/insectamundi Part of the Entomology Commons Stidham, John A. and Stidham, Thomas A., "Preliminary checklist of the orthopteroid insects (Blattodea, Mantodea, Phasmatodea,Orthoptera) of Texas" (2001). Insecta Mundi. 180. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/insectamundi/180 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for Systematic Entomology, Gainesville, Florida at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Insecta Mundi by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. INSECTA MUNDI, Vol. 15, No. 1, March, 2001 35 Preliminary checklist of the orthopteroid insects (Blattodea, Mantodea, Phasmatodea,Orthoptera) of Texas John A. Stidham 301 Pebble Creek Dr., Garland, TX 75040 and Thomas A. Stidham Department of Integrative Biology, Museum of Paleontology, and Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, Abstract: Texas has one of the most diverse orthopteroid assemblages of any state in the United States, reflecting the varied habitats found in the state. Three hundred and eighty-nine species and 78 subspecies of orthopteroid insects (Blattodea, Mantodea, Phasmatodea, and Orthoptera) have published records for the state of Texas. This is the first such comprehensive checklist for Texas and should aid future work on these groups in this area. Introduction (Flook and Rowell, 1997).
    [Show full text]
  • Animal Models of Pain: Progress and Challenges
    REVIEWS Animal models of pain: progress and challenges Jeffrey S. Mogil Abstract | Many are frustrated with the lack of translational progress in the pain field, in which huge gains in basic science knowledge obtained using animal models have not led to the development of many new clinically effective compounds. A careful re-examination of animal models of pain is therefore warranted. Pain researchers now have at their disposal a much wider range of mutant animals to study, assays that more closely resemble clinical pain states, and dependent measures beyond simple reflexive withdrawal. However, the complexity of the phenomenon of pain has made it difficult to assess the true value of these advances. In addition, pain studies are importantly affected by a wide range of modulatory factors, including sex, genotype and social communication, all of which must be taken into account when using an animal model. Therapeutic index Pain is both a highly important health problem and an The debate is complicated by the lack of published The ratio of the minimum dose increasingly mature topic of study. Experiments on pain negative data, both from animal studies and from clini- of a drug that causes toxic using human subjects are practically challenging, funda- cal trials. However, in general animal models are thought effects to the therapeutic dose, mentally (and perhaps inescapably) subjective, and ethi- to be fairly effective in ‘backward’ validation (detecting used as a relative measure of cally self-limiting, and thus laboratory animal models analgesic activity of drugs already known to be clini- drug safety. of pain are widely used (BOX 1).
    [Show full text]
  • Grasshoppers of the Choctaw Nation in Southeast Oklahoma
    Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service EPP-7341 Grasshoppers of the Choctaw Nation in Southeast OklahomaJune 2021 Alex J. Harman Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Fact Sheets Graduate Student are also available on our website at: extension.okstate.edu W. Wyatt Hoback Associate Professor Tom A. Royer Extension Specialist for Small Grains and Row Crop Entomology, Integrated Pest Management Coordinator Grasshoppers and Relatives Orthoptera is the order of insects that includes grasshop- pers, katydids and crickets. These insects are recognizable by their shape and the presence of jumping hind legs. The differ- ences among grasshoppers, crickets and katydids place them into different families. The Choctaw recognize these differences and call grasshoppers – shakinli, crickets – shalontaki and katydids– shakinli chito. Grasshoppers and the Choctaw As the men emerged from the hill and spread throughout the lands, they would trample many more grasshoppers, killing Because of their abundance, large size and importance and harming the orphaned children. Fearing that they would to agriculture, grasshoppers regularly make their way into all be killed as the men multiplied while continuing to emerge folklore, legends and cultural traditions all around the world. from Nanih Waiya, the grasshoppers pleaded to Aba, the The following legend was described in Tom Mould’s Choctaw Great Spirit, for aid. Soon after, Aba closed the passageway, Tales, published in 2004. trapping many men within the cavern who had yet to reach The Origin of Grasshoppers and Ants the surface. In an act of mercy, Aba transformed these men into ants, During the emergence from Nanih Waiya, grasshoppers allowing them to rule the caverns in the ground for the rest of traveled with man to reach the surface and disperse in all history.
    [Show full text]
  • Orthoptera: Acrididae)
    204 Florida Entomologist 88(2) June 2005 MANDIBULAR MORPHOLOGY OF SOME FLORIDIAN GRASSHOPPERS (ORTHOPTERA: ACRIDIDAE) TREVOR RANDALL SMITH AND JOHN L. CAPINERA University of Florida, Department of Entomology and Nematology, Gainesville, FL 32611 The relationship between mouthpart structure zen until examination. Mandibles were removed and diet has been known for years. This connec- from thawed specimens by lifting the labrum and tion between mouthpart morphology and specific pulling out each mandible separately with for- food types is incredibly pronounced in the class In- ceps. Only young adults were used in an effort to secta (Snodgrass 1935). As insects have evolved avoid confusion of mandible type due to mandible and adapted to new food sources, their mouthparts erosion (Chapman 1964; Uvarov 1977). An exam- have changed accordingly. This is an extremely im- ple of moderate erosion can be seen in Figure 1 (I). portant trait for evolutionary biologists (Brues This process was replicated with 10 individuals 1939) as well as systematists (Mulkern 1967). from each species. After air-drying, each mandi- Isley (1944) was one of the first to study grass- ble was glued to the head of a #3 or #2 insect pin, hopper mouthparts in detail. He described three depending on its size, for easier manipulation, groups of mandibles according to general struc- and examined microscopically. ture and characteristic diet. These three groups, We used Isley’s (1944) description of mandible still used today, were graminivorous (grass-feed- types and their adaptive functions to divide the ing type) with grinding molars and incisors typi- mandibles into 3 major categories: forbivorous cally fused into a scythe-like cutting edge, for- (forb-feeding), graminivorous (grass-feeding), bivorous (forb or broadleaf plant-feeding type) and herbivorous (mixed-feeding).
    [Show full text]
  • Comparative Morphology of the Stinger in Social Wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)
    insects Article Comparative Morphology of the Stinger in Social Wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) Mario Bissessarsingh 1,2 and Christopher K. Starr 1,* 1 Department of Life Sciences, University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago; [email protected] 2 San Fernando East Secondary School, Pleasantville, Trinidad and Tobago * Correspondence: [email protected] Simple Summary: Both solitary and social wasps have a fully functional venom apparatus and can deliver painful stings, which they do in self-defense. However, solitary wasps sting in subduing prey, while social wasps do so in defense of the colony. The structure of the stinger is remarkably uniform across the large family that comprises both solitary and social species. The most notable source of variation is in the number and strength of barbs at the tips of the slender sting lancets that penetrate the wound in stinging. These are more numerous and robust in New World social species with very large colonies, so that in stinging human skin they often cannot be withdrawn, leading to sting autotomy, which is fatal to the wasp. This phenomenon is well-known from honey bees. Abstract: The physical features of the stinger are compared in 51 species of vespid wasps: 4 eumenines and zethines, 2 stenogastrines, 16 independent-founding polistines, 13 swarm-founding New World polistines, and 16 vespines. The overall structure of the stinger is remarkably uniform within the family. Although the wasps show a broad range in body size and social habits, the central part of Citation: Bissessarsingh, M.; Starr, the venom-delivery apparatus—the sting shaft—varies only to a modest extent in length relative to C.K.
    [Show full text]