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First published online April 18, 2006
Journal of Experimental Biology 209, iii (2006)
Copyright © 2006 The Company of Biologists Limited
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02246
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Inside JEB

KEEPING COCKROACHES ON COURSE

Kathryn Phillips

kathryn{at}biologists.com


Figure 1

Most cockroaches rely on information gleaned from their sensitive antennae to guide them around. But how do these insects use this information to regulate their lightning fast reactions? A cockroach can execute as many as 25 turns s–1 when scuttling along a wall. Noah Cowan, Jusuk Lee and Bob Full developed a mathematical model of the insect's dynamics and kinematics integrated with sensory information from the antennae to see if they could predict how the insects control their course with such precision (p. 1617). The team suspected that that the insects needed to know both their position relative to the wall, and the speed they were closing in on it, to keep themselves scuttling along. But were both pieces of information essential, or could the insect get by knowing just one; it's location? Comparing the model's behaviour with the antics of insects crawling along a wall, the team discovered that cockroaches need to know both their position and the wall approach velocity, to keep them on course.

References

Cowan, N. J., Lee, J. and Full, R. J. (2006). Task-level control of rapid wall following in the American cockroach. J. Exp. Biol. 209,1617 -1629.[Abstract/Free Full Text]


Related articles in JEB:

Task-level control of rapid wall following in the American cockroach
N. J. Cowan, J. Lee, and R. J. Full
JEB 2006 209: 1617-1629. [Abstract] [Full Text]  




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