Olfactory Mating Signals in the Migratory Locust Locusta migratoria.

ABSTRACT: Swarming locusts cause huge plagues across the world threatening food production. Before swarms form, locust populations exhibit a dramatic phase change from a solitary to a gregarious phase. The cause of this phase change is a complicated interplay of conspecific and environmental cues and is, especially for one of the major pests, the migratory locust Locusta migratoria, still not well understood. Here we study the behavior of both solitary and gregarious L. migratoria towards the headspace odors of conspecifics. As we do not find a general attraction of gregarious animals to the headspace of gregarious conspecifics, swarm formation does not seem to be mainly governed by olfactory aggregation cues. When testing for potential mating signals, we observe that the headspace of virgin gregari

SUBMITTER: Unni AP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10991065 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature