dc.contributor.advisor | Cocroft, Reginald B. (Reginald Bifield), 1960- | eng |
dc.contributor.author | Ramaswamy, Karthik, 1975- | eng |
dc.date.issued | 2010 | eng |
dc.date.submitted | 2010 Spring | eng |
dc.description | The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. | eng |
dc.description | Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Sept. 7, 2010). | eng |
dc.description | Thesis advisor: Dr. Reginald Cocroft. | eng |
dc.description | Vita. | eng |
dc.description | Ph. D. University of Missouri--Columbia 2010. | eng |
dc.description.abstract | [ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] I investigated the properties of collective behavior in a group-living insect, including the patterns of group behavior, the function of group level patterns, and how collective behavior emerges from individual actions. In the treehopper Umbonia crassicornis, offspring live in cylindrical aggregations along a host plant stem. In the presence of a predator, offspring produce synchronized vibrational signals that elicit maternal defense.The mother must approach the predator to defend her offspring, and I found that the collective signals reveal not only the predator's presence, but also its location. I then demonstrated experimentally that defending mothers use information in offspring signals to locate the predator. Finally, I and my collaborators developed an individual-based model of collective antipredator signaling. In the model, individuals contacted by the predator initiate signaling, while other individuals use both local cues (from immediate neighbors) and global cues (from all other group members) to decide whether and when to signal. The model results closely match multiple system-level patterns of offspring communicative networks, and provide insight into the mechanisms by which offspring groups can effectively increase the perceptual range of the defending mother. | eng |
dc.description.bibref | Includes bibliographical references. | eng |
dc.format.extent | null | eng |
dc.identifier.merlin | b77890474 | eng |
dc.identifier.oclc | 662494464 | eng |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10355/8444 | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://doi.org/10.32469/10355/8444 | eng |
dc.language | English | eng |
dc.publisher | University of Missouri--Columbia | eng |
dc.relation.ispartofcommunity | University of Missouri--Columbia. Graduate School. Theses and Dissertations | eng |
dc.rights | Access is limited to the campuses of the University of Missouri. | eng |
dc.rights.license | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. | |
dc.subject.lcsh | Treehoppers -- Reproduction | eng |
dc.subject.lcsh | Insects -- Behavior | eng |
dc.subject.lcsh | Insects -- Infancy | eng |
dc.subject.lcsh | Insects -- Host plants | eng |
dc.subject.lcsh | Insect sounds | eng |
dc.title | Collective offspring-parent signaling in a social treehopper : mechanisms, patterns and function | eng |
dc.type | Thesis | eng |
thesis.degree.discipline | Biological sciences (MU) | eng |
thesis.degree.grantor | University of Missouri--Columbia | eng |
thesis.degree.level | Doctoral | eng |
thesis.degree.name | Ph. D. | eng |