title: Coordinated movements of the head and body during orienting behaviour in the praying mantis Tenodera aridifolia.
abstract: The visual orienting behaviour towards prey in the free-moving mantis was investigated with a high-speed camera. The orienting behaviour consisted of head, prothorax, and abdomen rotations. Coordinated movements of these body parts in the horizontal plane were analysed frame-by-frame. Rotations of these body parts were initiated with no or slight (≤40 ms) differences in timing. The initiation timing of prothorax-abdomen rotation was affected by its initial angle before the onset of orienting. There were positive correlations in amplitude among head-prothorax, prothorax-abdomen, and abdomen rotations. The ratio of these rotations to total gaze rotation was affected by the initial prothorax-abdomen angle before the onset of orienting. Our data suggest that coordinated movements of the head, prothorax, and abdomen during orienting are ballistic events and are pre-determined according to visual and proprioceptive information before the onset of orienting.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan. y.yamawaki@kyudai.jp
authors.forename: Yoshifumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamawaki
authors.forename: Kohei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Uno
authors.forename: Ryohei
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ikeda
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Toh
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003058:Cockroaches / Q000502:physiology; D005508:Food Deprivation; D019416:Head Movements; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D020050:Mantodea / Q000502:physiology*; D009043:Motor Activity; D009949:Orientation; D011187:Posture; D014741:Video Recording