Suppression of escape behaviour during mating in the cricket Acheta domesticus

We examined behavioural switching in the cricket Acheta domesticus. Animals are constantly exposed to sensory information that must be integrated by the nervous system and transformed into an appropriate behavioural response. Often, the same sensory inputs can play a crucial role in different behaviours. For example, in isolated crickets, tactile activation of specific cercal sensory receptors can trigger escape, but these same sensory inputs are also important during mating. We mechanically stimulated crickets before, during and after copulation and found that most touch-evoked escape responses are suppressed in copulating males. The behavioural switch from escape to mating occurs following a male's chemosensory contact with a female and requires the continued presence of the female for its full expression. We removed the antennae from male and female crickets to examine whether chemosensory cues detected by the antennae are necessary for this escape suppression and mating initiation. Although the antennae are the primary source of this chemosensory information, we determined that the maxillary palps are another important source. Removal of male antennae did not significantly impact mating success. The loss of the female antennae, however, did have a significant negative effect on both female and male receptivity and mating behaviour.