Abstract
As soon as a blinded Carausius adult encounters a vertical rod, it climbs to its tip. If the upper end of the rod bifurcates, the stick insect climbs to the tip of one of the branches where it gropes around in the air with its forelegs, then turns around and goes up the other branch. This behavior is repeated several times before the animal eventually climbs back down the rod (Precht 1942). Apparently the stick insect has a negative geotaxis which temporarily switches over to a positive geotaxis after the end of a branch is reached. The more tips encountered, the longer the duration of the positive geotaxis. Such behavior may serve to bring the insect into a favorable feeding site.
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© 1983 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Bässler, U. (1983). Orientation. In: Neural Basis of Elementary Behavior in Stick Insects. Studies of Brain Function, vol 10. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-68813-3_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-68813-3_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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