Have you ever thought about what shaped
your personality? Our living environment
contribute to the development of our
characters. For example, if you have brothers
or sisters, you always need to share toys,
snacks, and even love from your parents.
Therefore, a sense of competition develops.
On the other hand, if you have no siblings,
you never need to compete, so
your character becomes easy going.
Just like humans, insects have individual
characters which are also affected by their environment.
And just like most humans,
insects that grow up in isolation
are more easygoing than those in crowded condition.
However, there is one species
that is opposite to this trend: the field cricket.
Have you ever seen battles between crickets, like this picture?
This is a game called Dou Xi that was popular in China 1,200 years ago.
The guide books from that time suggested that
crickets have different characters
depending on their body colors.
If you want to know how aggressive crickets are,
let them bite you.
They are strong enough to make your fingers bleed.
The relationship between cricket character and body color
known from ancient time is still seen today, but remains unsupported by any scientific evidence.
My PhD research is covering
the mechanisms of how different environments change crickets' characters and body colors.
I discovered that cricket change their body color
depending on population density at a
specific period of the growth.
However,
no one knows how crickets sense population
density and changed their characters yet.
So, I'm raising crickets under different conditions.
For example,
using containers of different colors and sizes,
and raising cricket with different numbers of siblings.
I'd like to solve the 1,200 years old mystery of cricket
and hope and my research
might lead to some inspiration
on how personalities
are determined in other animals. Maybe even in humans.
Thank you for listening.
