Locusts and Star Wars
Locusts are probably not our favourite insect. Images of a plague of millions flying in haphazard directions, stripping the land of everything even slightly green, are what most people think of when one mentions locusts.
But what about locusts as film critics? Researchers in the Division of Neuroscience at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne have been sitting them down to watch films in order to study their tiny brains.
A number of stimuli were investigated, and they found that when locusts crash land after flying into something, they do so without realising what they are doing - they can’t determine the time to collision. They also found that in certain conditions, darker objects might be seen before lighter ones.
Is this important? Well it seems that giving the insects something to watch is altogether a better plan. What better film to show than Star Wars - the quintessential trilogy (now sextuplet). Scenes from Lucas’s masterpiece were shown to locusts while their neurones were strictly monitored. From the famous opening credits, through the dark days of life on
Tattooine, the swamps of Degobah and on to the final battles above the Death Star, the locusts were no doubt spellbound. The outcome - they “respond well to any rapid movement”. Never! How much popcorn they got through and what they thought of Yoda is not documented. One thing is for sure: fly they must, for only then an insect they will be.
[Rind, F.C. and Simmons, P.J. (1992). Orthopteran DCMD neuron: a re-evaluation of responses to moving objects. I. Selective responses to approaching objects. Journal of Neurophysiology 68, 1654-1666.]
Orthopteran facts:
- Locusts are the most frequently named bugs in the Bible. The full list (made in 1958 by entomologist W.G. Bruce) is: locust: 24 references, moth: 11, grasshopper: 10, scorpion: 10, caterpillar: 9, and bee: 4. Not even a mention for the humble ladybird or the butterfly.
- The desert locust, Shistocerca gregaria, is one of the world’s most destructive insects. A large swarm can eat 80,000 tons of corn in a day. To make matters worse, they can cover 300 miles overnight.
- It is possible to calculate a close estimate of the outside temperature (in degrees Fahrenheit) by listening to how many times a Katydid (a small green grasshopper) chirps. The formula is: T=60+[(n-19)/3]. Where "T" is the temperature and "n" is the number of chirps per minute.
- Periodical cicadas are among the longest living insects, with some living for 17 years. Male cicadas are also the world’s loudest insects, and can be heard from a quarter of a mile away.
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