Insect behavior

Ph.D. Scholar
Department of Entomology
India Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidayalya

1. Insect
Behavior
Presented By
Aaliya Afroz
Ph.D. Scholar
Dept. of Entomology

2. Introduction
!Insect behavior covers a very wide range of activities,
including
➢Locomotion
➢Grooming
➢Feeding
➢Communication
➢Reproduction
➢Dispersal, migration
➢Host or prey selection
➢Diapause, and various responses to environmental hazards

3. Definition-
!It is an internally directed system of adaptive
activities that facilitate survival and reproduction.
!Any action that an individual carries out in
response to a stimulus or its environment,
especially an action that can be observed and
described.

4. Acts
Processing information in the central
nervous system
How an insect takes in information from its
environment
Behavior includes

5. Concept of Umwelt
!Umwelt is the overall context in which an animal
behaves, including its sensory environment and its
behavioral capabilities.
!It is also the semiotic world of the organism,
including all the meaningful aspects of the world for
any particular organism.
! An organism creates and reshapes its
own umwelt when it interacts with the world. This is
termed a 'functional circle'.

6. Umwelt theory



Mind and the world are inseparable, because it is the mind that interprets the world for the
organism.


7. SCHEMATIC VIEW OF A CYCLE AS AN
EARLY BIOCYBERNETICIST

8. Umwelt of Tick-
➢The odor of butyric acid, which emanates from
the sebaceous follicles of all mammals.
➢The temperature of 37°C (corresponding to
the blood of all mammals).
➢The hairy topography of mammals.

9. Innate Behavior
!Innate behavior is genetically programmed.
! Individuals inherit a suite of behaviors just as they
inherit physical traits such as body color and wing
venation. In general, innate behaviors will always be:
➢Heritable — encoded in DNA and passed from
generation to generation.
➢Intrinsic — present in animals raised in isolation from
others.

10. ➢Stereotypic — performed in the same way each time by
each individual.
➢Inflexible — not modified by development or experience.
➢Consummate — fully developed or expressed at first
performance
!Dance flies males use a nuptial
gift as a way to divert a female’s
aggressive behavior long enough
for insemination to occur.

11. Honey bees waggle dance

12. Categories of innate behavior
!Reflex
➢basic unit
➢Two neurons are involved:
~ a sensory neuron
~ a motor neuron
!Orientation Behaviors
➢are coordinated movements (walking, flying,
swimming, etc.) that occur in response to an external
stimulus.

13. !Kinesis
➢It is a non-directed orientation, that is, the animal
exhibits a “random walk”.

➢Orthokinesis: change in the speed of movement.
➢ Klinokinesis: change in the rate of turning.

14. !Taxis is a movement directly toward (positive) or away
from (negative) a stimulus.
➢Klinotaxis : side-to-side motions of the head or body with
successive comparison of stimulus intensity as the animal
moves forward.
➢Tropotaxis : requires bilateral input from paired sensory
receptors such that the signal is equalized in both
receptors.
➢Phototaxis
➢Geotaxis
➢Thigmotaxis

15. !Telotaxis
➢The dorsal light reaction is a
special case in which
movement occurs at a
constant 90° angle to a light
source.
➢It explains why moths tend to circle a street lamp at night.
!Menotaxis
➢Body of orientation is according to the sun.
➢The light compass reaction is in which insects fly away
from the nest site at a fixed angle (x°) to the sun and return
at the supplementary angle (180-x°).

16. !Fixed Action Pattern (FAP)
➢ It is a sequence of coordinated movements that are
performed together as a “unit” without
interruption.
➢ Each FAP is triggered by a unique stimulus
variously known as a sign stimulus, a key stimulus,
or a releaser.
Hunting Behavior in Predatory wasp
demonstrated by Niko Tinbergen

17. Learned Behavior

!Learning can be defined as a persistent change in
behavior that occurs as a result of experience.
!In general, learned behaviors will always be:
➢Nonheritable — acquired only through observation or
experience
➢Extrinsic — absent in animals raised in isolation from
others

18. ➢Permutable — pattern or sequence may change over
time.
➢Adaptable — capable of modification to suit changing
conditions.
➢Progressive — subject to improvement or refinement
through practice.

19. !Habituation is learning to “ignore” stimuli that are unimportant,
irrelevant, or repetitive.
➢ Example ~ a puff of air on the cerci of a cockroach.
~ widespread use of sex pheromone.
!Classical Conditioning is learning to associate one stimulus with
another, unrelated stimulus.
➢Example Honey bees learn to associate floral colors and fragrances with
the presence of nectar.
oInstrumental Learning depends on the animal’s ability to remember
the outcome of past events and modify future behavior accordingly.
➢Example Cockroaches learning to run through a simple maze to find
food.
Categories of Learned Behavior

20. oLatent Learning involves memory of patterns
➢Example -Worker ants remembers a series of landmarks
along a trail and follow them home to the nest site.
oImprinting is a special case of programmed learning
that occurs early in life and only within a short time-
window known as the “critical period”.
oThis memory is retained throughout life and recalled
later when needed.
➢Example- Fruit fly larvae, will imprint on the taste and
smell of their food.

21. Complex Innate Behavior

!Ethologists are often careful to distinguish between learned and
innate behaviors, but in reality the two are at extreme opposite ends
of a single continuum.
!Most overt behavior is neither 100% innate nor 100% learned.
!Sometimes innate behaviors may be modified (or modulated)
through practice and experience.
➢Example- In locusts, the ability to fly is innate, but an older, experienced
individual consumes less energy (per unit time) than a novice flier.
➢The innate ability to fly may be refined and improved through
experience.

22. Summary

!There are two types of behavior that can be observed in
organisms: innate and learned.
!Insects have always been popular as subjects for behavioral
research because, in comparison to vertebrates, they have
relatively simple nervous systems, they exhibit discrete
responses to external stimuli.
!Communication between members of a colony can take several
different forms such as "dances" or pheromones.
!In addition to the ability to learn, some species of social insects
have also been shown to teach each other various behaviors.