A miniaturized assay to quantify effects of chemicals or physical stimuli upon locust activity

Abstract Solitary and gregarious locusts differ in many traits, such as body color, morphometrics and behavior. With respect to behavior, solitary animals shun each other, while gregarious animals seek each other's company, hence their crowding behavior. General activity, depending on the temperature, occurs throughout the day but is much lower in solitary locusts. Solitary locusts occasionally fly by night while gregarious locusts fly regularly during daytime (swarming). In search of new assays to identify substances that control or modify aspects of (phase) behavior, we designed a simple activity assay, meant to complement existing behavioral measurement tools. The general activity is reflected in the number of wall hits, that is, the number of contacts between the locust and the vertical walls of a small arena. Using this single parameter we were able to quantify differences in total activity of both nymphs and adults of isolation-reared (solitary), regrouped- and crowd-reared (gregarious) locusts under different conditions. Furthermore, we demonstrate that there are inter- and intra-phase dependent differences in activities of 5th instar nymphs after injections of the three different adipokinetic hormones.