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Aggregation behaviour of cockroaches (Blattaria: Blaberidae): intraspecific and interspecific preference
Varadínová, Zuzana ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Janda, Milan (referee)
Cockroaches (Blattaria) are considered to be nearly universally gregarious insect order. In spite of this fact most of the research effort has been devoted to the behaviour of domiciliary species. It is thus not surprising we still do not have comparable information about aggregation behaviour in common laboratory blaberid species. We have investigated aggregation behaviour of adult males and females in six blaberid species: four South American species (Blaberinae: Eublaberus posticus, Eublaberus distanti, Blaberus discoidalis, Blaberus craniifer) and two Madagascar species (Oxyhaloinae: Gromphadorhina portentosa, Princisia vanwaerebeki). Intraspecific aggregation behaviour was determined using two approaches: the binary choice tests arena and free interaction arena tests. Results obtained with both methods were largely consistent. We have found that blaberid clades clearly differed in their aggregation patterns. (1) Females of Eublaberus species aggregated while only a slight and less consistent aggregation tendency was recorded in conspecific males. (2) Both sexes of Blaberus species aggregated, especially when tested in the arena. (3) The Madagascar hissing cockroaches of the Gromphadorhina-Princisia clade are not gregarious, the aggregation tendency was entirely absent in the males of both species and...
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Spatial choices of animals based on abstract visual stimuli: Configuration or shape?
Nekovářová, Tereza ; Bureš, Jan (advisor) ; Syka, Josef (referee) ; Kršiak, Miloslav (referee) ; Frynta, Daniel (referee)
Spatial cognition as a model for study of learning, memory and problem solving has a long history in neurosciences. This cognitive ability is used for several reasons. Firstly, the ability to form the inner representation of a space, to orient in an environment, to perceive positions of prominent objects and of other animals is essential for all mammals and birds. Thus it is natural for animals to perform such behavior even in experimental conditions. Secondly, it is possible to compare spatial cognition of different species in similar tasks. And thirdly, there are strong indices of the possible neuroanatomical substrate and mechanism underlying spatial cognition. There are different strategies of navigation in an environment, which could be distinguished by different criterions. They differ in the frames of reference in which the observer operates, i.e. whether the co-ordinates are centered in a subject (egocentric orientation) or whether the co-ordinates encode only the relations between objects and dominants in the environment and they are not dependent on observer (geocentric orientation). The navigational strategies also differ by the type of cues that are used for navigation. In allothetic orientation the subject employs external landmarks, which may be not only visual stimuli, but also the stimuli of...
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