Skip navigation
  • Home
  • Browse
    • Communities
      & Collections
    • Browse Items by:
    • Publication Date
    • Author
    • Title
    • Subject
    • Department
  • Sign on to:
    • My MacSphere
    • Receive email
      updates
    • Edit Profile


McMaster University Home Page
  1. MacSphere
  2. Open Access Dissertations and Theses Community
  3. Open Access Dissertations and Theses
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/9813
Title: Socially influenced behaviour and learning in the context of food choice and egg-laying sites in Schistocerca gregaria
Authors: Lancet, Yaara
Advisor: Dukas, Reuven
Jeff Galef, Jim Quinn
Jeff Galef, Jim Quinn
Department: Psychology
Keywords: social learning;local enhancement;learning;locusts;Schistocerca gregaria;Behavior and Ethology;Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology;Behavior and Ethology
Publication Date: Oct-2011
Abstract: <p>Social learning, defined as learning from other individuals, has been well studied in vertebrates and social insect species. In order to promote further understanding of the evolution of social learning, I tested a non-social insect for social learning and socially influenced behaviour. The desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) is a gregarious insect which has the opportunity for social learning and can benefit from such ability. Locusts showed rapid individual learning, preferring a diet they have experienced over another of equal nutritional quality. Adult locusts also showed socially influenced behaviour, preferring to eat and lay eggs in the vicinity of other locusts over doing so alone. Fifth instar locusts did not show the same socially influenced behaviours. Neither adult nor nymphs showed social learning after interacting with previously fed models or after observing models feed through a screen. These results provide evidence for socially influenced behaviour in locusts and for a difference in social behaviour between nymphs and adults. Further research utilizing locusts as a model system may help us gain a better understanding of the evolution of social learning.</p>
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/9813
Identifier: opendissertations/4900
5863
2067613
Appears in Collections:Open Access Dissertations and Theses

Files in This Item:
File SizeFormat 
fulltext.pdf
Open Access
493.24 kBAdobe PDFView/Open
Show full item record Statistics


Items in MacSphere are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship     McMaster University Libraries
©2022 McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4L8 | 905-525-9140 | Contact Us | Terms of Use & Privacy Policy | Feedback

Report Accessibility Issue