Premium
Cover Caption
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
insect science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.991
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1744-7917
pISSN - 1672-9609
DOI - 10.1111/ins.12005
Subject(s) - biology , hatchling , polyphenism , locust , cover (algebra) , ecology , perspective (graphical) , attraction , evolutionary biology , phenotypic plasticity , linguistics , computer science , mechanical engineering , engineering , philosophy , artificial intelligence , hatching
The question of the very early stages of grangerization is one of the keys to our understanding of the amazing behavioral plasticity that lies in the basis of locust phase polyphenism. The study by Guershon and Ayali presents a novel perspective on this question, suggesting that rather than emerging with a gregarious or solitarious, parentally derived and predetermined phase, all locust hatchlings have an independent default or innate behavioral state, which reflects tolerance if not attraction to conspecifics. The phase is very much determined later on by environmental conditions. (photo provided by Amir Ayali, see pages 649‐656).