Tickling locusts' legs make them swarm
source: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20090130/tsc-researchers-discover-brain-chemical-e123fef.html
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- purplefox
- added this
Did you know that tickling a locust's hind legs transforms it to the swarming stage, which gathers them in vast clouds that can devastate crops?
According to researchers, "the tickling simulates the jostling that usually solitary locusts experience when limited food suppliers force them to crowd", but now they've figured out how this happens, and it turns out that its all to do with the brain chemical serotonin, which also profoundly effects how us humans interract.
To find out more about how serotonin influences locusts, click through to the link...
According to researchers, "the tickling simulates the jostling that usually solitary locusts experience when limited food suppliers force them to crowd", but now they've figured out how this happens, and it turns out that its all to do with the brain chemical serotonin, which also profoundly effects how us humans interract.
To find out more about how serotonin influences locusts, click through to the link...
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kiernanquinn
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I was on a bike ride today and I found a Locust that fell from the sky on a wooden bridge over a brook. The locust had tan-pink skin all over and a black spot on its neck shield. Its mouth was black. Its wings appeared broken: black-green and transluscent. I may have hit it as I was tossing stones over the high voltage wire and it appeared before my eyes on the bridge. It is difficult to see under high voltage: everything appears fuzzy pink and black before your eyes and you have to brush the air to see bushes up close. A few feet away there was a bush that had leaves eaten like those in these photos.
Walpole, MA, USA: 8-31-2009
- 2 years ago
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kiernanquinn
