A research group led by Professor Eiji Numata of Kyoto University and Senior Researcher Takuma Takanashi of the Forest Research and Management Organization of the Forest Research and Management Organization has found that eggs in egg masses have begun to hatch and shells of the beetle, which is widely seen in Japan. At the moment of cracking, the generated vibration was felt around, and it was discovered that hatching occurred all at once.
A collection of eggs laid by birds, turtles, insects, etc. in one place is called an "egg mass", and there are known examples of hatching all at once.However, it is often unclear what information is transmitted across the shell of the egg and signals simultaneous hatching.
The brown marmorated stink bug lays about 30 eggs on the surface of the leaves.Researchers have previously reported that this egg mass hatches all at once in a very short time of about 10 to 15 minutes.Also, if the egg mass is isolated one by one, it takes a long time to hatch the whole egg.Therefore, it is presumed that the egg masses hatch all at once because the information was transmitted from the previously hatched pups and the other pups immediately started hatching with the signal.As a signal, he focused on the vibration of "breaking an egg".
This time, the research group recorded the vibration of the egg that occurred on one of the two adjacent eggs breaking with the "laser Doppler vibrometer" on the other egg.It was found that a very short pulsed vibration with a duration of 2 seconds was transmitted.Subsequently, when the recorded vibration was artificially reproduced and given to the pre-hatched egg, it was confirmed that this vibration had the effect of promoting rapid hatching.This is the first time that a simple and ingenious mechanism of simultaneous hatching has been shown.
The brown marmorated stink bug has become a problem as an agricultural pest and a sanitary pest in East Asia and in recent years in Europe and the United States, and its efficient control is strongly desired.It is expected that the behavioral mechanism found in this study will be the basis for the development of control methods.
Paper information:[Current Biology] Egg-Cracking Vibration as a Cue for Stink Bug Siblings to Synchronize Hatching
