Mechanosensory-induced behavioural gregarization in the desert locust Schistocerca gregaria

@article{Rogers2003MechanosensoryinducedBG,
  title={Mechanosensory-induced behavioural gregarization in the desert locust Schistocerca gregaria},
  author={Stephen M Rogers and Thomas Matheson and Emma Despland and Tim Dodgson and Malcolm Burrows and Stephen James Simpson},
  journal={Journal of Experimental Biology},
  year={2003},
  volume={206},
  pages={3991 - 4002}
}
SUMMARY Desert locusts show an extreme form of phenotypic plasticity, changing between a cryptic solitarious phase and a swarming gregarious phase that differ in many aspects of behaviour, physiology and appearance. Solitarious locusts show rapid behavioural phase change in response to tactile stimulation directed to the hind femora. Repeatedly touching as little as one quarter of the anterior (outer) surface area of a hind femur produced full behavioural gregarization within 4 h. Solitarious… 
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  • 2010
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The first comprehensive major axis regression analysis of scaling relations in an insect brain revealed that phase differences in brain proportions arise from a combination of allometric effects and deviations from the allometric expectation (grade shifts).
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  • Biology
    Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
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TLDR
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TLDR
This work analyzed in both phases the responses of an identified visual interneuron, the descending contralateral movement detector (DCMD), which responds to approaching objects, and demonstrated that habituation of DCMD is fivefold stronger in solitarious locusts.
Tactile stimuli perceived by the antennae cause the isolated females to produce gregarious offspring in the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria.
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