The wind-orientation of walking carrion beetles

Abstract

The wind-orientation of carrion beetles (Necrophorus humator F.) was studied by use of a locomotion-compensator. 1. Beetles walking on a horizontal surface for periods of several minutes in a dark environment without an air current and other orientational stimuli seldom keep straight paths. They walk along individually different circular paths (Fig. 1). The mean walking speed is 5.6±1.0 cm/s. The mean of the angular velocity reaches maximally 25 °/s for individual beetles (mean angular velocity of the analysed population of 152 beetles: 1.9±9.3 °/s). The distribution of the mean walking directions of the population shows that the beetles display no preference for one direction (Fig. 3 A). The instantaneous value of the individual angular velocity is independent of the instantaneous walking direction. 2. During exposure to an air current the individual beetles keep straight and stable courses with any orientation relative to the direction of air flow (Fig. 4). The mean walking directions of 76 individuals point in all directions but there is a weak preference of windward tracks (Fig. 3B). 3. Wind orientated walking starts at a threshold wind velocity of about 5 cm/s (Fig. 6). The walking tracks straighten with increasing air current velocity. This leads to a narrowing of the distribution of the instantaneous walking directions around the preferred walking direction (Fig. 7C). This narrowing is due to an increase in the slope of the characteristic curve (angular velocity as a function of walking direction) of the wind-orientation system. 4. Twenty percent of the beetles show a spontaneous change of their anemotactic course during walks of 5 min duration. Neither the time of the change, its position on the track or the direction of the new course are predictable. There is, however, a slight preference for 90±20° changes in the walking direction (Fig. 8). 5. The antennae (Fig. 9) act as the only sense organs responsible for the wind orientation. The capability for wind orientated walks is lost after ablation of both flagella (Fig. 10).