Ablation of antennae does not disrupt magnetoreceptive behavioural reaction of the American cockroach to periodically rotated geomagnetic field

In-vivo biomagnetic characterisation of the American cockroach

“…Some evidence already exists for magnetic sensing ability in cockroaches. Cockroach mobility increases when it is placed in an Earth-strength magnetic field (∼ 0.5G) with periodically varying direction [5,6]. Furthermore, magnetic deposits of sizes similar to our estimations were reported in the specimen of dead bees, ants and termites [8].…”

“…Some evidence already exists for magneto-reception in cockroaches. Cockroach mobility increases when it is placed in an Earth-strength magnetic field (~0.5 G) with periodically varying direction 4 even after ablation of antennae 5 . This effect is absent under very interesting conditions: (i) in total darkness; 7 (ii) when a radio-frequency field is added on top of the periodically varying Earth-strength magnetic field; 6 (iii) in genetically modified cockroaches without Cry2 cryptochromes 7 .…”

“…Several behavioural experiments have demonstrated that cockroaches and other insects are capable of magnetoreception [5][6][7][8]. A different set of experiments found and characterised magnetic particles in insect corpses [9][10][11][12].…”

Multimodal sensory reliance in the nocturnal homing of the amblypygid Phrynus pseudoparvulus (Class Arachnida, Order Amblypygi)?

“…To deprive individuals of olfactory perception, the distal 1 cm of the antenniform legs (distal tarsi) of olfaction-deprived individuals was clipped with scissors to remove the entirety of their olfactory sensilla. This procedure has been used in similar studies on other arthropods, such as crustaceans (Corotto et al, 1999;Kamio et al, 2005;Maruzzo et al, 2007) and insects (Roth and Barth, 2009;Vacha et al, 2008). Olfactory sensilla, and the capacity for olfaction, are restricted to this distal portion of the antenniform legs (Hebets, 2002).…”

An extremely low frequency magnetic field increases unconditioned larval movement of the common cutworm, Spodoptera litura: A novel model for a magnetoreceptive neurobehavioral study

“…While these studies have accumulated evidence that oscillatory ELF‐MF could enhance unconditioned behavioral effects in animals, including humans, further investigation is needed to define a detailed mechanism for afferent and efferent neurophysiological cascades and the regulatory mode of the enhanced behaviors. In accordance with this view, an American cockroach, Periplaneta americana , has been successfully used as the model system for a study of the geomagnetic field effect on the unconditioned behavioral change of the species (Vacha 2006; Vacha et al . 2008).…”