Embracing firefly flash pattern variability with data-driven species classification.

Many nocturnally active fireflies use precisely timed bioluminescent patterns to identify mates, making them especially vulnerable to light pollution. As urbanization continues to brighten the night sky, firefly populations are under constant stress, and close to half of the species are now threatened. Ensuring the survival of firefly biodiversity depends on a large-scale conservation effort to monitor and protect thousands of populations.

Flow-mediated olfactory communication in honeybee swarms.

Honeybee swarms are a landmark example of collective behavior. To become a coherent swarm, bees locate their queen by tracking her pheromones. But how can distant individuals exploit these chemical signals, which decay rapidly in space and time? Here, we combine a behavioral assay with the machine vision detection of organism location and scenting (pheromone propagation via wing fanning) behavior to track the search and aggregation dynamics of the honeybee L.

Grasshopper DCMD: An Undergraduate Electrophysiology Lab for Investigating Single-Unit Responses to Behaviorally-Relevant Stimuli.

Avoiding capture from a fast-approaching predator is an important survival skill shared by many animals. Investigating the neural circuits that give rise to this escape behavior can provide a tractable demonstration of systems-level neuroscience research for undergraduate laboratories. In this paper, we describe three related hands-on exercises using the grasshopper and affordable technology to bring neurophysiology, neuroethology, and neural computation to life and enhance student understanding and interest.