Brain control of mating behavior in the male cricket Gryllus bimaculatus DeGeer: the center for inhibition of copulation actions

Abstract

We re-examined the functional role of the brain and suboesophageal ganglion (SOG) in inhibiting mating behavior in the male cricket Gryllus bimaculatus DeGeer. Experiments were conducted by using mimetic stimulation to elicit copulation actions. To induce a change in the male internal state from a sexually responsive state to a sexually unresponsive state in the mating stage, noxious stimulation, head injury and leg pinching were used. Males that sustained a head injury became sexually unresponsive but became responsive as soon as the brain was removed, while males that underwent the same treatment remained unresponsive after the SOG was destroyed by sectioning. The inhibitory effects of the brain were also demonstrated by the fact that further removal of the SOG in the decerebrated males did not change their copulatory responsiveness, while removal of the brain in SOG-sectioned males markedly increased copulatory responsiveness. Furthermore, decerebrated males did not become sexually unresponsive by leg pinching, while SOG-sectioned males that had recovered sexual responsivenss, did. These results suggest that the brain, and not the SOG, plays a key role in the inhibition of copulation in the male cricket during the mating stage.