My observation on Collective Conscious

About 4 months ago, I completed work on my first paludarium(for those that dont know, it is basically a terrarium that combines land and water-a replication of a river bank environment). I have 3 Cuban Tree Frogs in there. Their favorite food is crickets.

I generally feed the frogs every other day, about a half-dozen crickets between the 3 of them. In the 4 months that the paludarium has been functional, I have only had one cricket escape. There is a small opening in the corner where the lid and tank connect, just big enough for a cricket to slip out. It is not very apparent, and the crickets have never really seemed to notice it.

Now, I buy 3 dozen crickets every week, as well as breeding my own(I have a couple of reptiles, they eat a lot!).

Last week, another cricket found it's way to the opening. I saw it happening and forced him back in.

On sunday, 3 crickets escaped through the hole.

Last night, the entire half dozen that I put in there immediately swarmed to the opening. I had to cover it with duct tape to keep them from escaping. The most interesting part? This was a brand new batch of crickets that I had picked up at the pet store yesterday.

Reminded me of the "100th Monkey theory".

Just thought some of you might find this interesting....

It is interesting.

You're in a position to do some science, although I am not unmidful that this is a little rough on the crickets, with whom I have no quarrel. Then again, neither do I begrudge the frogs their meal. Life eats life. Many of my friends eat others of my friends. We adapt.

I suppose your working hypothesis is that there is some communication among crickets about the opportunity to escape. So, how does one cricket get a message to another cricket? There is probably something known about that already which you could research.

Based on the behavior of the naive crickets (the ones from the store)

Last night, the entire half dozen that I put in there immediately swarmed to the opening. I had to cover it with duct tape to keep them from escaping. The most interesting part? This was a brand new batch of crickets that I had picked up at the pet store yesterday.

I'd be wondering if crickets leave some sort of marker, or residue of their passing through the hole. By last night, 5 crickets had made it to the hole, and only one turned back. So if there were some persistent marking, then that hole, or the path to it, might really stand out.

Make a second hole. See if they find it, or instead keep going for the now blocked hole that may be marked. I think you can see that this could lead to a series of interventions that would shed a lot of light on what's going on.

response to eight bits


Thanks for responding!


I too am mindful of how rough this is on the crickets-whose song I absolutely love(on a tangent, keeping a cricket cage in the spare bedroom has done wonders for my sleeping habits-their chirp is hypnotic and rings ). However, I justified it a couple ways:
A)Crickets life span in the wild is around 4 weeks. The ones I breed literally live in oats, meaning nothing but food surrounds them, and I generally wont feed them to the frogs until they are at least 5 weeks old.
B)Like you said, circle of life.

The one way that I can figure they could signal each other would be following the excrement, but I have not been able to observe any that has been left behind; they also must walk along the ceiling of the cage to get to the opening, meaning any excrement should fall to the water below.

I am also mindful of the fact that I am keeping wild animals. I made specific choices in what I have kept. Most of my reptiles are rescued from abusive or neglectful environments.

The frogs, however, are purchased. I specifically chose the Cuban Tree Frog as it is considered an invasive species, and their extermination is being advocated in Florida. I also verified that they were captive bread, as I am VERY against keeping wild caught animals.

But I digress....

I did consider that they were communicating by leaving a scent, however, I dismissed this notion for a few reasons:
-The first cricket that escaped did so within the first month of the cage being operational. The next one didn't figure it out until 3 months later. The process then accelerated.
-I have researched crickets fairly thoroughly and can not find anything that says they leave a scent.
-I called a local exterminator, and he claimed that the best way to get rid of crickets was with a few natural remedies, because they dont trail each other like ands or cockroach.

So I ruled that out.

I went to the store yesterday and purchased a new dozen crickets, which I kept in a separate cage than my normal cage. Today is feeding day. I have left the other hole closed off, but doing so has opened a new crevice in the oposite corner.

Tonight I will confirm or dis-confirm the 'trail' theory. I will put the 'new' crickets(the ones that have been kept seperate from the others) in the paludarium. I am specifically going to be observing whether or not they try to go to the old, covered escape route.

I washed the lid of the cage to make sure nothing could have been left on it.

After that I will move on to observing whether or not they find the new one, and how future generations of crickets behave.

I will post my findings tomorrow.

Finally, I remember what all this reminds me of, Richard Feynman's informal experiments with ant trails (recorded in his book, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman). Of course, a Nobel Prize winner's "informal" experiments are pretty professional.

This short article was written about Feynman by E.O.Wilson, an expert on ants:

www.lanbogroup.com...

And the first short article in this pdf is reprinted from Nature, an appreciation of Feynman, but also a recognition that even he didn't get to the bottom of the mystery.

www.aamech.org...

So, you seem to be in good company. And here I was, thinking this thread would be about Carl Jung .