Insect behavior. Insect Instinct Animal Instincts - An Alternative to Thinking

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Fight to win or run without looking back, reflexively hold your breath when diving under water, show aggression or, on the contrary, show friendliness. All these actions people (as well as many animals) do thoughtlessly. Each person from birth is endowed with the ability to perform reflex actions that do not need to be taught.

So what is instinct, and what is its role in the life of any biological organism on our planet? To answer this question, we will consider some aspects of reflex behavior in humans, animals and insects.

Innate and acquired instincts

The species of homo sapiens has not always been the "king of nature", at the dawn of the formation of society, our ancestors had to run a lot from tigers, wolves and other predators. So the most ancient human instinct was formed -. In principle, any physiological needs will outdo all other needs. It is truly difficult to have a leisurely philosophical conversation during an attack of diarrhea.

The next most important human instinct is the need to reproduce. Freud's followers associate almost all human behavior with this instinct, from conscious reactions to unconscious manifestations. However, we will not delve into the jungle of psychology, let's turn to the last, and perhaps the most impressive group of reflexes.

So, acquired reflexes. Have you ever had to frantically close your Internet browser due to the fact that peripheral vision caught a blurry silhouette of the boss who entered the office? Have you ever seen a professional boxer deftly avoid a blow that a random person would certainly not have avoided? Such reflexes are not necessary for survival, but help to adapt to certain activities. We all accumulate them to one degree or another throughout life.

Animal instincts - an alternative to thinking?

Sometimes the behavior of "our smaller brothers" seems reasonable to us. Even more. However, according to scientists, one should not be surprised at the ability of moles to dig the most complex underground galleries or the building art of beavers. After all, their actions are guided by an ancient instinct - a survival mechanism developed by many generations of animals over hundreds and thousands of years.

By the way, the "animal" instinct can be considered more perfect than the human instinct. Suppose an earthquake is about to occur in a certain area. A person can sleep peacefully in his bed, and his dog at this time will show signs of anxiety. Many react very violently to natural anomalies, apparently, they are able to feel some changes in the environment that are imperceptible to us.

The so-called "predator instinct" deserves special attention. An observer watching a movie from the "" cycle may get the impression that a predator somehow unnaturally easily finds its prey, as if by instinct. Although instinct actually helps the animal to hunt, the predator knows well the habits of its prey and its habitat.

Insect instinct - teamwork

The instincts of insects leave a rather strong impression - just look at how ants work harmoniously on the construction of an anthill or honey bees on the construction of perfectly even wax combs. However, blind instinct cannot replace the ability to think critically. If you pierce the honeycomb, the bee will not stop bringing honey there. She will not be embarrassed by the fact that honey flows into the hole.

Gathering food, rearing the larvae, protecting the nest/comb/anthill - these insect instincts help them survive. Obeying the dictates of instinct, insects are able to accurately find their way to the nest, even being at a considerable distance from it. And, finally, protecting their colony, insects fearlessly rush into battle - they would rather die than give in to the aggressor.

Did you know that ants not only build complex nests, but also have "livestock" - aphids, which they milk. South American ants are avid gardeners - they breed some types of mushrooms in their nests. Ants live in huge colonies, and each individual, having learned something new, immediately begins to teach its fellows. If an ant has to do a job (such as digging a tunnel) alone, it will be very reluctant to do so. Another thing is if a detachment of ants is working.

As you can see, instinct manifests itself in different ways in humans, animals and insects. Only one general pattern is observed - the more highly developed the organism is, the less influence the instinct has on it. The reactions of a single ant are controlled by "", and a person's actions are determined rather by acquired habits, social norms and the level of development of the individual. And yet instinct - an ancient and wise mechanism - always comes to the fore when there is a threat to our life, health or safety.

Instinct and learning in insect behavior

For many years, the opinion prevailed that insects and other arthropods are creatures whose behavior is controlled by a rigid “blind instinct”. This idea took root mainly under the influence of the works of the outstanding French entomologist J. A. Fabre, who managed to convincingly show with his brilliant research that even the most complex actions of insects are not a manifestation of "mind", but are performed on an innate, instinctive basis. The one-sided development of Fabre's provisions led to the specified, incorrect assessment of the behavior of insects, to the denial not only of the rationality of their behavior, but also to the denial, or at least belittlement of the role of accumulation of individual experience, learning in their life.

As we have already seen, the formation of any form of species-typical, hereditarily "encoded", i.e., instinctive, behavior in ontogeny is always associated, to one degree or another, with some elements of individually acquired behavior, learning. There is no need to talk about strictly fixed instinctive behavior in its “pure form” even with regard to lower animals.

This fully applies to insects, whose instinctive behavior is also improved by learning. This is the main role of learning in the life of insects. It can obviously be considered that learning in insects and other arthropods is "in the service" of instinctive behavior. Like other animals, instinctive movements (innate motor coordination) are strictly genetically fixed in them. Instinctive actions, instinctive behavior are plastic in insects to some extent due to the inclusion of acquired components in them.

Under natural conditions, the ability to accumulate individual experience manifests itself in insects to an unequal degree in different functional areas. Most often, it is associated with orientation in space and food-procuring activities. An example is the above-mentioned experiments on teaching bees to orient themselves according to various patterns for food reinforcement. Another example is ants, which very easily (in just 12–15 experiments) learn to pass even a complex maze, but, as far as is known, they do not learn actions that lie outside the specified functional areas. Such a specific orientation (and at the same time limitation) of the ability to learn is a characteristic feature of learning in representatives of the entire phylum of arthropods.

The role of learning in the behavior of insects is also clearly seen in the "dances" of bees - these highest representatives of arthropods. Defending the view that insects, including bees, are “stimulus-related, reflex animals,” American scientists W. Dethier and E. Stellar state, for example, that bees are not trained to perform and interpret a complex dance. At the same time, as shown by Soviet researchers N. G. Lopatina, I. A. Nikitina, E. G. Chesnokova and others, learning processes not only refine, but also modify the communication abilities of the bee in ontogenesis and expand the set of signaling means.

Moreover, as the aforementioned researchers established, the biological significance of the signaling activity of honey bees is determined by the stereotype of conditioned reflexes acquired in ontogeny as space is explored and during communication in the family. It turned out that the interpretation of the information transmitted in the dance about the distance and direction of flight to the food source is possible only if the bee has previously learned to correlate the location of the food with the nature of the information contained in the dance of the foragers. In addition, the tactile component of the dance (abdominal vibrations) has no innate signal value. The latter is also acquired in ontogeny by a conditioned reflex way: bees that had no contact (food) with a dancer in ontogeny are unable to interpret this essential element of the dance. Therefore, each bee must basically learn to "understand" the language of the dance. On the other hand, the formation of temporary connections turned out to be important for the formation of the very ability to perform dances.

Thus, there are no invariable forms of behavior even where stereotyping is required first of all - in signal postures and body movements. Even such innate communicative behavior as the "dancing" of bees is not only supplemented and enriched by learning processes, not only intertwined with them, but also formed in combination with individually acquired elements of behavior.

Rice. 41. Studying the ability of the honey bee to visual generalize (experiments Mazokhin-Porshnyakov). Designations: a - general scheme of experiments; above - test figures, below - the sequence of individual stages in the formation of a reaction to the generalized signs of a triangle and a quadrangle (+ = food reinforcement); b - identification of drawings on a local basis. In each experiment, one pair was offered to choose from the top and bottom row of drawings; only figures from the top row were reinforced

Of course, the honey bee occupies an exceptional position among insects, and not all representatives of this huge class have such a height of mental development. The exceptional mental qualities of the honey bee are evidenced, in particular, by experimental data indicating that it has analogues of certain mental functions of higher vertebrates. We are talking about the highly developed ability of the bee to visual generalizations established by Mazokhin-Porshnyakov, for example, such as “triangle” and “quadrilateral” (regardless of the specific shape, size ratio and mutual orientation of the figures) (Fig. 41, a), "two-color", etc. In one of the series of experiments, bees were asked to choose from pairwise presented figures those in which one local feature (a drawn circle) was at the end of a chain of circles, regardless of the length and shape of these chains (Fig. 41, b). With all the tasks he proposed, even in the most difficult cases, the bees coped well. At the same time, great plasticity, non-standard behavior was noted, which the experimenter rightly associates with the continuous variability of environmental conditions (variability of lighting, relative position, shape, color, and many other signs of environmental components), under which these insects have to get food. Mazokhin-Porshnyakov comes to the conclusion that the choice of an unfamiliar object on the basis of generalized visual images (sometimes incorrectly designated by him as “concepts”) is evidence of the non-standard use of individual experience by bees, its application in a new situation, different from the environment of the initial development of the corresponding skill.

Thus, the presence and significance of the fact of transferring a certain skill to a new situation and solving a complex problem based on individual experience, recorded in the form of a generalized visual representation, are rightly emphasized here. In this respect, we actually already find in bees psychic abilities similar to those that relate to the prerequisites for the intellectual actions of higher vertebrates. However, these prerequisites alone are not enough for the intellectual behavior and thinking of animals, especially if we look at these higher mental functions of animals as a step towards the emergence of human consciousness. Therefore, the described abilities of bees cannot serve as a criterion for recognizing their thinking, and in any case it is not necessary to talk about the presence of rational activity in the bee, even in an elementary form, as Mazokhin-Porshnyakov interprets the results of his research. Recognizing in higher animals the presence of peculiar thinking abilities, intellect, one must clearly realize that reason, that is, reason, consciousness as a qualitatively different category of mental reflection is not inherent in any of the animals, but only in man.

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An insect, in particular a butterfly, is not the most complex biological object, but, nevertheless, its behavior is not as simple as it seems at first glance. In the behavior of butterflies, the following types of nervous organization of the response are distinguished, depending on the stimulus and the nature of the response. A simple reflex response can be considered the take-off of an insect when the mobility of the object on which it sits is disturbed; it is called a simple taxis. Instincts and complex associative neuropsychic activity are also distinguished. An example of this is the erection of complex protective structures, in the construction of which hundreds of insects participate and each has its own role, and many of them are interchangeable. This phenomenon cannot be explained by a simple reflex response; rather, it is a programmed action of the colony in a given situation.

Taxis, as mentioned above, is a simple reflex action, but they can also be demarcated. There are phototaxis, chemotaxis, thermotaxis, hydrotaxis. In turn, each of these reflexes can be positive and negative. Positive phototaxis - the butterfly's desire for light, we often observe under night lamps and even compose songs about the blind faith of a moth flying into a candle flame. We should not forget about negative phototaxis, when the moth avoids light sources and seeks to hide from dazzling rays.

We should also mention chemotaxis. For example, many moths are irresistibly drawn to fermented molasses, with the alluring smell of esters. The aroma of mustard oils attracts the familiar cabbage white. And the smell of oxalic acid is a cotton scoop. An example of negative chemotaxis is the panic fear of the smell of naphthalene in clothes moths.

Also known is such a manifestation of behavior in insects as thigmotaxis - an irresistible desire to come into close direct contact with a solid object. This is typical for caterpillars just before pupation. It is on this behavioral feature that the method of trapping rings is based, which is used to trap and destroy the codling moth.

Hydrotaxis is the pursuit of a place with an optimal level of humidity. Hydrophilic insects fly to wet areas and surfaces, while hydrophobic ones, on the contrary, look for drier places. Shading baits use this particular behavior and are very effective for pest control.

Thermotaxis is the pursuit of optimal environmental temperature conditions. Positive or negative, it often causes mass migration of insects, including butterflies.

The instincts of insects are developed so strongly and diversely that many of them do not cease to amaze man even today. Instincts are the strongest link in the natural chain of conservation of populations and species in general. Insects do not learn instincts due to the lack of teachers. In this case, information about the sequence of actions in a given situation is transmitted by heredity at the DNA level.

Even before pupation, the caterpillars of the stem moth prepare a flight hole in the corn or hemp stalk for the future butterfly, not understanding at all why, they just know that it needs to be done.

Unconditioned reflexes

In the simplest sense, a reflex can be described as a response of the body to some kind of stimulus. Reflexes are conditional and unconditional. Conditional acquired throughout life, unconditional are congenital. The latter form the original basis of the behavior of insects.

A striking example of an unconditioned reflex is the so-called moving spot reflex. Predatory insects, such as dragonflies or praying mantises, rush to pursue any object that comes into motion and reminds them of prey. The locust has a take-off reflex - straightening when contact with a solid substrate is lost. (a photo)

The so-called unconditioned reflex of general inhibition is very interesting - when pushed or falling, many beetles, butterflies, caterpillars stop moving, press their limbs to the body and pretend to be dead. All this makes them less visible and less attractive to potential predators. This phenomenon is also called thanatosis.

This property is very pronounced in stick insects: if an insect is thrown to the ground, it will not only be immobilized for some time, but will also lose sensitivity to any irritants for a short period. In bed bugs and other secretly living insects, thanatosis manifests itself when they fall into especially narrow cracks in the substrate; the reaction of general inhibition in such a situation is triggered by irritation of sensitive receptors. The insect freezes for a while, and then quietly gets out of the gap. Such a mechanism prevents the bug or cockroach from becoming permanently stuck and dying of starvation.

instincts

An instinct is a form of complex behavior, a certain stereotype of actions in response to some factor. Instincts are most pronounced in insects in two areas of life: the extraction of food (a photo) and . Also, stereotypes of behavior are found in the construction of dwellings, choosing a place for laying, etc. Researchers are inclined to believe that instincts are special, complicated forms of unconditioned reflexes.

Usually, the influence that prompts the insect to realize its instincts is not some external factor, but a change in the physiological state of the organism. For example, hunger makes him look for food, an increase in the content of hormones in the blood "starts" sexual behavior.

Instincts are sometimes so complex that they look like carefully thought out or well learned behavior. For example, caterpillars, before pupation, make cocoons for themselves, exactly the same as their parents once did, although they themselves create them for the first time in their lives and cannot “peep” how to make them correctly. Before laying, birch tube turners roll birch leaves into a tube, making an incision in it along a certain line. And so on…

Instincts can be realized only in those conditions that are ideally suited for this. For example, sphecoid wasps (wasps of the genus Sphex) prey on crickets and grasshoppers. Having caught the prey, they paralyze it, damaging the insect, after which they grab the prey and drag it to the nest. But if the prey is cut off, then the wasp will not find them, will lose interest in the insect as prey and fly away. By the way, this interesting observation proves that insects cannot think: if the wasp showed at least some signs of intelligence, it would drag the victim away, grabbing it by the limb or wing, but in the absence of the victim, the instinct does not work.

Taxis and tropisms

Literally translated from Greek, the word "taxis" means "attraction", and "tropos" - "inclination".

Taxis is the reaction of the body (motor) to a unilaterally acting stimulus, which manifests itself and does not depend on its “will”. So, due to the peculiarities of vision in some nocturnal insects, phototaxis is observed - an attraction to light sources. Insects are attracted even to open fire, although objectively it can be dangerous for them.

Tropism is practically the same, with the difference that they have a certain “relationship” to stimuli that attract or repel insects. Accordingly, tropisms are positive and negative. An example of positive tropism is the attraction of cockroaches to sources of high humidity and heat in a dwelling that favors them. And as a negative tropism, we can recall the desire of some insects to move away from cities as far as possible, as sources of noise and magnetic radiation.

Tropisms and taxises of insects can be used by humans in plant protection. For example, codling moths () have negative geotropism: they climb trees. The imposition of trapping belts on boles allows catching these pests in large quantities. Similarly, the phototaxis of a number of flying insects formed the basis for the invention of light traps. By the way, the desire to climb trees all the time is also manifested in stick insects. Even living in the limited space of the cage, these insects practically do not descend to the "ground". (a photo)

Among tropisms, photo- (to light), chemo- (to certain chemical stimuli), gyro- (to humidity) and thermotropism (to temperature) are most often observed. These reactions do not need further explanation. But the most relevant taxis are others: clino-, phobo-, tropotaxis and others. They are more complex and interesting.

phobotaxis

also called "trial and error". It is a general algorithm of behavior that usually manifests itself in conditions when something threatens the life of an insect (“phobos” in Greek means “fear”). Phobotaxis is manifested by the fact that, under the influence of a threatening stimulus, the insect slows down, speeds up or changes the direction of movement. For example, if you cover an insect with a light-tight cap, it begins to rush under it and beat against its walls. This increases the likelihood for him to leave the danger zone than if he purposefully and slowly moved in the same direction.

clinotaxis

- this is a movement with a change in direction, in which sensitive receptors are more or less excited by a certain stimulus. For example, flies do not like light, and if they are illuminated, they turn so that as few receptors in their body as possible are irritated by light stimuli. In other words, under the action of light rays, they “turn away” from them.

Tropotaxis

- this is an algorithm for pointing to the source of the stimulus, in which it is necessary that the symmetrical receptors of the body be equally irritated. So, if a bee sees a target, it moves towards it and reaches it. If she close one eye, she will "miss".

Conditioned reflexes

Based on the information given above, it can be assumed that insects are a kind of "automata" that react quite unambiguously to external stimuli and, based on this, demonstrate their extremely primitive forms of behavior. But it's not; each insect has a unique behavior due to the possibility of acquiring conditioned reflexes.

Conditioned reflexes are habitual reactions acquired throughout life that are evoked in response to certain stimuli. The totality of such reactions forms in the insect a kind of "life experience" that distinguishes it from other relatives.

Sometimes conditioned reflexes are so strong that they "interrupt" innate forms of behavior. So, in one experiment, cockroaches were affected by a weak electric current if, when choosing between a lighted and a darkened chamber, they chose the latter (which is more "pleasant" to them, because these insects like to live in the dark). Over time, they were able to be retrained in such a way that they began to prefer life in a lighted cell, which was completely unusual for them initially. In some cases, insects can even be trained. So the heroes of the famous work - Lefty and his trained fleas - hypothetically could not be fiction.

Creating a conditioned reflex is quite simple. To do this, it is necessary several times in a row to simultaneously act on the insect with two stimuli: unconditional (“reward”, for example, food, or “punishment”, for example, electric shock) and conditional (the action of any environmental factor). For a certain activity, the insect is either encouraged or, relatively speaking, punished. Gradually, it begins to perform the desired action, regardless of whether it was rewarded (“punished”) or not, that is, without any reinforcement.

Conditioned reflexes, if they are not reinforced by stimuli for some time, are able to disappear. So, social insects (ants, wasps) remember the location of rich food sources and find them on their own. But as soon as the food in the sources ends, they stop visiting these places.

The experience of training bees is very interesting. For some time, they were attracted to a sugar solution with the addition of an extract of clover flowers, which allowed them to develop a “favorable” attitude towards this plant. As a result, the bees became more willing to visit the clover field, which increased the production of honey and the quality of the seeds of the plant. (a photo)

Innate and acquired instincts

Animal instincts - an alternative to thinking?

Insect instinct - teamwork

Unconditioned reflexes

instincts

Taxis and tropisms

phobotaxis

clinotaxis

Tropotaxis

Conditioned reflexes

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