Date of Award

Summer 6-3-2015

Document Type

Poster

Department

Biology

First Advisor

Benjamin Navia Ph.D.

Abstract

Female cricket Acheta domesticus recognize and respond to the call of the conspecific male by walking towards it (phonotaxis). Such phonotactic response has been described as selective, e. g. females are more likely to respond phonotactically to calls with syllable periods typical of the males’ calling song than they are to respond to calls with unattractive syllable periods (Stout et al., 1983). A previous study by Popov and Shuvalov (1977) concluded that phonotaxis can be altered by internal and external conditions. One internal condition that can modify selective phonotaxis is age (Henley et al. 1992; Stout et al. 2010). Here we demonstrate that sound intensity is an external condition that can also modify selective phonotaxis. The recognition of the call of the male by the female has become an important model to evaluate the nervous system processing that underlies the encoding and recognition of signals which communicate information regarding the behavioral state of the sender.

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