Aggression in Hieroglyphus banian (Rice grasshopper) vs. in Drosophila melanogaster: A Comparison
Authors: Abhilash Kondai; Sudipta Saraswati
Affiliation: University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India
Keywords: i. aggression; i. aggression
While aggression has been reported to be a widely observed behavior across animal species, it has not been systematically studied in many organisms.For example, aggressive behaviorin Drosophila melanogaster has been well-documented but that is not the case with grasshoppers. We undertookan extensive study of aggressive behavior in a species of rice grasshopper, Hieroglyphus banian. Here, we present our findings of aggression in male Hieroglyphus banian and compare our findings with published literature of aggression in male Drosophila melanogaster. We found that several components of aggressive behavior, such as (i) approach, (ii) holding or grabbing, (iii) low-level fencing or step on, (iv) tussling, and (v) walking away or running away or flying away, are conserved between grasshopper and Drosophila. However, we also observed that biting is an aggressive behavior that is exhibited by only grasshopper and is not reported in Drosophila. Interestingly, in grasshopper we did not observe some behavioral components of aggression, such as (i) wing threatening, (ii) lunging, and (iii) boxing, that are reported to be exhibited by Drosophila. Our findings and comparative analysis indicate that several components of aggressive behavior are conserved between two insect species of two different kinds―hemimetabolous insect grasshopper and holometabolous insect Drosophila. Results from our study will help us further investigate if the aforementioned conserved aspects of aggressive behavior are conserved across a variety of insect species. Moreover, our study also forms the basis for investigations into the functional significance of the conserved vs. non-conserved aspects of aggressive behavior across different insect species.