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Behavioral Evidence For "Contextual Decision Hierarchies" In The Hermit Crab, Pagurus Samuelis, Wendy Lee Billock
Behavioral Evidence For "Contextual Decision Hierarchies" In The Hermit Crab, Pagurus Samuelis, Wendy Lee Billock
Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects
In this dissertation, I examined how motivation and sensory cue perception influence the behavioral choices of hermit crabs. I began by reviewing behavioral experiments that have demonstrated the underlying sensory processing of visual, chemical, and tactile information in crustaceans and propose a novel behavior model entitled "Contextual Decision Hierarchies" in which sensory modalities vary in relative influence on behavior depending on context. This behavioral model was tested in a series of four experiments. In the first experiment, I tested whether the hermit crab, Pa gurus samuelis, deprived of food, shells, or both will respond differently from control hermit crabs when …
Behavioral And Physiological Ecology Of Scorpion Venom Expenditure: Stinging, Spraying, And Venom Regeneration, Zia Nisani
Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects
In this dissertation, I reviewed the functional aspects of venom from a behavioral perspective to develop a comprehensive understanding of the behavioral ecology of venom. To explore the behavioral and physiological ecology of venom expenditure by scorpions, I conducted four studies of the medically significant Buthid scorpion Parabuthus transvaalicus. The first two experiments revealed that scorpions regulate their venom expenditure during defensive stinging and squirting in the most complex manner yet described for any venomous organism. When stinging, these scorpions can choose between delivering a dry or wet sting. Should they deliver a wet sting, they meter the volume …