Strength of forelimb lateralization predicts motor errors in an insect

Lateralized behaviours are widespread in both vertebrates and invertebrates, suggesting that lateralization is advantageous. Yet evidence demonstrating proximate or ultimate advantages remains scarce, particularly in invertebrates or in species with individual-level lateralization. Desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) are biased in the forelimb they use to perform targeted reaching across a gap. The forelimb and strength of this bias differed among individuals, indicative of individual-level lateralization. Here we show that strongly biased locusts perform better during gap-crossing, making fewer errors with their preferred forelimb. The number of targeting errors locusts make negatively correlates with the strength of forelimb lateralization. This provides evidence that stronger lateralization confers an advantage in terms of improved motor control in an invertebrate with individual-level lateralization.

• Publication year

  2016

• Venue

  Biology Letters

• Publication date

  2016-09-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1098/rsbl.2016.0547PMID 27651534PMCID 5046935
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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