The course control system of beetles walking in an air-current field

Summary

The wind-orientated walk of carrion beetles Necrophorus humator F. was analysed under closed-loop conditions with a walking compensator and under openloop conditions with a paired tread wheel (Fig. 1).

• 1. On the walking compensator an animal runs stable courses with a preferred direction relative to an air current (velocity =; 100 cm/s, Fig. 2B-D). A change in the air-current direction causes a corresponding adjustment of the mean walking direction (Fig. 3). Such course adjustment works best for changes in the air-current direction by an absolute value of 90° (Table 2).

• 2. Under closed-loop conditions the animal shows deviations of less than ± 45° around its preferred direction relative to the wind (Fig. 2B-D). The characteristic curve which describes the animal's angular velocity as a function of the animal's walking direction relative to the air-current stimulus is therefore revealed only in this angular range (Fig. 3, top).

• 3. Under open-loop conditions, however, complete characteristic curves can be obtained because the animal's walking reaction in response to any given angle of air-current stimulus is measurable on the paired tread wheel (Fig. 4). The characteristic curves are approximately sinusoidal functions. They can either show a shift parallel to the ordinale by a superimposed direction-independent constant angular velocity alone or, at the same time, they can independently exhibit an angular shift along the abscissa (Fig. 5).

• 4. The walking tracks straighten with increasing air-current velocity (Fig. 6A, insets), i.e. the animal more rapidly compensates deviations from a preferred course. This corresponds to higher amplitudes of the characterisic curve and steeper slopes at the negative zero-crossing point under open- as well as under closed-loop conditions (Fig. 6).

• 5. Walking in an air-current field can be explained by a model of the course control system using a feedback loop (Fig. 7). This model operates according to a sinusoidal characteristic function on which is superimposed a Gaussian white noise process of angular velocity which is independent of walking direction. The model produces realistic walking tracks in an air-current field (Fig. 8).