Insect Neurophysiology and Botanical Pest Control

Orthopteran insects constitute the most important group of plant-feeding insects. This insect taxon has fascinated researchers for decades because of its stereotyped acoustic communication and devastating swarming behaviour. Both of these topics were studied in model species belonging to the order of Orthoptera. First signal detection in noisy conditions was studied in the chirper bushcricket Mecopoda elongata where males produce periodic chirps to attract females acoustically in their habitat. Second a novel botanical pesticide based on linseed oil was developed to control the desert locust Schistocerca gregaria and the migratory locust Locusta migratoria. Both species can form destructive swarms in their gregarious phase and pose a great threat to agriculture. Finally the hypothesis whether or not fatty acids contained in linseed oil act as a swarm disruptive agent for gregarious desert locusts was tested in behavioural experiments.