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Visual course control of escape responses in the cockroach Blaberus craniifer : role of internal and external orientation information
Author(s) -
BELL WILLIAM J.,
TOBIN THOMAS R.,
VOGEL GREGORY,
SURBER JAMES L.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
physiological entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.693
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1365-3032
pISSN - 0307-6962
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3032.1983.tb00341.x
Subject(s) - darkness , biology , cockroach , light source , phototaxis , stimulus (psychology) , dictyoptera , anatomy , optics , biophysics , communication , physics , ecology , psychology , botany , cognitive psychology
. Nymphs of Blaberus craniifer were exposed to a point source of light while walking on a servosphere apparatus. The initial response was a brief stop followed by running at a rate exceeding that in darkness. Their course was away from the light source and their direction became closer to 180° away from the light, as the light source approached the horizontal. The straightness of the course was controlled by both internal and external orientation information. If the source was overhead the course was more circuitous than with the directional light. Following a temporal switch from darkness to light, abrupt sharp turns of more than 90° led the animals back into a ‘zone of darkness’. Stopping occurs immediately after the onset or offset of the light stimulus, but the duration of stops does not seem to be correlated with the time since a previous stop, nor with the length of the run prior to a stop. Responses to a sudden onset of a light stimulus seem to represent adaptations for re‐locating a ‘zone of darkness’ and for predator avoidance when a cockroach is disturbed during its photophase.