ACE Animal Behavior & Psychology 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which sensory modality do male moths primarily use to locate females for mating over long distances?
- Vision (ultraviolet patterns)
- Olfaction via sex pheromones (Correct answer)
- Mechanoreception of wing-beat sounds
- Thermoreception of body heat
Correct answer: Olfaction via sex pheromones
Male moths detect female-produced sex pheromones with highly sensitive olfactory receptors on their antennae to locate mates over distances of kilometers.
Question 2: What is 'thigmotaxis' in insects?
- Orientation toward gravity
- Preference for contact with solid surfaces (Correct answer)
- Movement toward light sources
- Avoidance of moisture gradients
Correct answer: Preference for contact with solid surfaces
Thigmotaxis is the behavioral tendency of insects to maintain contact with solid surfaces, which explains why many pests are found in cracks and crevices.
Question 3: The 'alarm-defense' system in social insects typically involves:
- A single queen releasing a recruitment pheromone
- Workers releasing alarm pheromones that recruit nestmates and trigger defensive responses (Correct answer)
- Soldiers performing a solo bluff display
- Scouts signaling the colony to relocate the nest
Correct answer: Workers releasing alarm pheromones that recruit nestmates and trigger defensive responses
Alarm pheromones released by workers rapidly recruit nestmates and switch the colony into defensive mode.
Question 4: Which learning paradigm is demonstrated when a bee associates a floral scent (conditioned stimulus) with a nectar reward (unconditioned stimulus)?
- Latent learning
- Operant conditioning
- Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning (Correct answer)
- Insight learning
Correct answer: Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning
Classical conditioning pairs a neutral stimulus (scent) with a biologically meaningful one (nectar reward) until the neutral stimulus alone elicits a response.
Question 5: An insect that adjusts its speed of random movement in response to stimulus intensity, but shows no directional orientation, is displaying:
- Taxis
- Kinesis (Correct answer)
- Menotaxis
- Transverse orientation
Correct answer: Kinesis
Kinesis is undirected movement whose speed or turning rate varies with stimulus intensity, unlike taxis which is directed.
Question 6: Kin selection theory predicts that eusocial behavior evolves more readily when workers share a high coefficient of relatedness (r). In Hymenoptera, what elevates r among full sisters?
- Diplodiploidy with multiple mating
- Haplodiploidy with single mating (monogyny and monandry) (Correct answer)
- Polyandry in queens
- Haploid workers and diploid queens
Correct answer: Haplodiploidy with single mating (monogyny and monandry)
In haplodiploid Hymenoptera with a singly mated queen, full sisters share 75% of their genes (r = 0.75), promoting altruistic worker behavior.
Question 7: In integrated pest management, monitoring traps baited with aggregation pheromones are most useful because they:
- Directly kill the entire pest population
- Indicate pest presence and help determine action thresholds (Correct answer)
- Replace the need for insecticide applications
- Prevent mating and reduce next-generation populations
Correct answer: Indicate pest presence and help determine action thresholds
Pheromone-baited traps detect pest presence and population trends, informing decisions about whether and when to apply control measures.
ACE Animal Behavior & Psychology 3
Which sensory modality do male moths primarily use to locate females for mating over long distances?