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Behavior

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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Law And Behavioral Biology, Owen D. Jones, Timothy H. Goldsmith Apr 2019

Law And Behavioral Biology, Owen D. Jones, Timothy H. Goldsmith

Owen Jones

Society uses law to encourage people to behave differently than they would behave in the absence of law. This fundamental purpose makes law highly dependent on sound understandings of the multiple causes of human behavior. The better those understandings, the better law can achieve social goals with legal tools. In this Article, Professors Jones and Goldsmith argue that many long held understandings about where behavior comes from are rapidly obsolescing as a consequence of developments in the various fields constituting behavioral biology. By helping to refine law's understandings of behavior's causes, they argue, behavioral biology can help to improve law's …


Stopped In Their Tracks: Assessing The Effects Of Anthropogenic Barriers On Gopherus Polyphemmus, Bridget Vincent, Katelyn S. Lanctot, Rhett M. Rautsaw, Scott A. Martin, M. Rebecca Bolt, Richard A. Siegel Jan 2017

Stopped In Their Tracks: Assessing The Effects Of Anthropogenic Barriers On Gopherus Polyphemmus, Bridget Vincent, Katelyn S. Lanctot, Rhett M. Rautsaw, Scott A. Martin, M. Rebecca Bolt, Richard A. Siegel

Bridget Vincent

Roads are known to hinder gene flow and fragment habitat for terrestrial organisms, including Gopher Tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus). However, railroad tracks may cause similar problems as tortoises often become trapped in the tracks and face mortality from overheating and dehydration. To test the effect railroad tracks have on Gopher Tortoises, 12 adult tortoises familiar with the tracks and 12 unfamiliar with the tracks were placed in a 20 meter stretch of inactive track at the Kennedy Space Center. Additionally, 12 tortoises were placed in a control area of equal size. Behavior and crossing attempts were recorded for one …


Responses Of Four Arthropod Prey Species To Mechanosensory, Chemosensory And Visual Cues From An Arachnid Predator: A Comparative Approach, Scott Kight Dec 2015

Responses Of Four Arthropod Prey Species To Mechanosensory, Chemosensory And Visual Cues From An Arachnid Predator: A Comparative Approach, Scott Kight

Scott Kight

Comparisons of multiple invertebrate prey species to direct predator sensory cues are relatively uncommon. We compared prey responses to arachnid predators (Araneae: Lycosidae) of four species: Blattella germanica (Blattodea: Blattellidae), Acheta domesticus (Orthoptera: Gryllinae), Armadillidium vulgare (Oniscidea: Armadillidae), and Porcellio laevis (Oniscidea: Porcellionidae). Prey experienced combinations of direct mechanosensory, chemosensory or visual cues. All species responded to all cues, but response structure differed among species. Mechanosensory and chemosensory predator cues elicited frequent shifts between behaviors, whereas visual stimuli tended to diminish responses. Mechanosensory stimuli produced the most extreme responses, particularly in crickets and cockroaches, but responses to mechanosensory stimuli diminished …


Temperature-Dependent Parental Investment In The Giant Waterbug Belostoma Flumineum (Heteroptera: Belostomatidae), Scott Kight Dec 1999

Temperature-Dependent Parental Investment In The Giant Waterbug Belostoma Flumineum (Heteroptera: Belostomatidae), Scott Kight

Scott Kight

We examined the effects of ambient temperature on the brooding behavior of male waterbugs, Belostoma flumineum Say. Male waterbugs are more likely to prematurely terminate care for small egg-pads than for larger egg-pads. Because embryogenesis and breeding season are both associated with ambient temperature, males in warmer environments may respond differently than those in cooler conditions. We studied the effects of temperature on male parental behavior by housing groups of completely and partially egg-encumbered males under different thermal regimes. Completely encumbered males rarely discarded egg-pads, regardless of ambient temperature. Partially encumbered males housed under warm ambient temperatures, however, were signiÞcantly …