A method for the construction of dominance hierarchies in the field cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus (Le Guillou)

The post-fight display of the field cricket, Teleogryllus oceanicus (Le Guillou) is evaluated as a means of providing an index of level of aggression. This display comprises a bouncing motion of remarkably constant form. Hierarchies constructed using an index based on this behaviour correlated well with those produced by more classical methods and also provided an effective measure of small changes in aggressive levels undetected by these classical methods.