Crickets warn unborn babies about spiders

SPARTANBURG, S.C., Feb. 18 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've discovered crickets are able to warn their unborn babies about predator threats.

University of South Carolina-Spartanburg Assistant Professor Jonathan Storm and Professor Steven Lima of Indiana State University said they placed pregnant crickets into enclosures containing a wolf spider. The spiders' fangs were covered with wax so the spiders could stalk the crickets, but couldn't kill them.

After the crickets laid their eggs, Storm and Lima compared the behavior of the offspring to offspring whose mothers hadn't been exposed to spiders. The scientists said the differences were dramatic.

When placed into a terrarium with a hungry wolf spider, the crickets born of spider-exposed mothers were more likely to seek shelter and remain hidden 113 percent longer than offspring from mothers that hadn't been exposed to spiders. Another experiment showed the "forewarned" crickets were more likely to freeze when they encountered spider silk or feces -- a behavior that could prevent them from being detected by a nearby spider.

The researchers said their findings suggest a transfer of information from mother to offspring about predation risk might be more common than thought.

The study is reported in the March issue of the journal American Naturalist.