Grooming Techniques Flashcards
7 cards from real ACE practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Grooming Techniques flashcards as text
Honey bee workers observed grooming each other in an unusual frenetic pattern immediately after a pesticide application event most likely indicates:
Answer: Contact with an irritant or toxic residue that bees are attempting to remove from nestmates
Frenetic, widespread allogrooming after a pesticide event suggests bees are detecting and responding to toxic or irritant contamination on nestmates.
Which sensory organ is most directly cleaned during leg-over-head autogrooming in Diptera?
Answer: Antennae and arista
The leg-over-head grooming motion in flies primarily cleans the antennae and the arista, which bear olfactory and mechanosensory receptors.
A researcher finds that a new bait toxicant causes worker ants to groom nestmates at a higher rate. This suggests the compound likely:
Answer: Has a repellent or irritant sub-effect that triggers allogrooming, potentially accelerating colony transfer
Compounds that stimulate grooming may be acting as irritants, and increased allogrooming can speed horizontal transfer of the toxicant through the colony.
In stored product pest management, which behavior analogous to grooming contributes to diatomaceous earth efficacy against grain weevils?
Answer: Weevils cleaning their tarsi after contacting dust deposits, abrading the cuticle and ingesting particles
Grain weevils clean their tarsi after contacting diatomaceous earth, abrasively damaging their cuticle and ingesting particles that disrupt water balance.
Why might indoor dust insecticide treatments lose effectiveness faster in high-humidity environments, specifically related to insect grooming?
Answer: Moisture causes dust particles to clump, reducing tarsal pickup during grooming
High humidity causes dust particles to aggregate into clumps that are too large for cockroach tarsi to pick up efficiently, reducing grooming-mediated exposure.
Which of the following best explains why IGR (insect growth regulator) baits are less dependent on colony-wide grooming transfer compared to neurotoxic baits?
Answer: IGRs disrupt molting at very low doses, so even small amounts transferred through trophallaxis are effective on nymphs
IGRs are highly active at trace concentrations, so even small amounts transferred during trophallaxis and grooming are sufficient to disrupt molting in developing nymphs and larvae.
An ACE candidate observing a German cockroach colony notices workers frequently licking the dorsal surface of other individuals. This allogrooming likely serves to:
Answer: Remove aggregation pheromone-containing fecal material that accumulates on nestmates
German cockroaches engage in allogrooming partly to consume fecal deposits bearing aggregation pheromones and nutritional resources from nestmates.