A FRESH LOOK AT THE AROUSAL SYNDROME OF INSECTS

The “fight or flight” syndrome of vertebrates comprises an assemblage of linked responses to arousal or stress, which prepare the body for intense activity. This chapter examines the possibility that arousal involves changes in a wide range of physiological systems and may be manifested over a wide range of intensities and time periods, its effects persisting for hours or days. Thus, the acute fight or flight response would represent an extreme position on an activation continuum, at the other end of which would be less obvious responses of lower intensity that must concern experimentalists because they affect numerous aspects of physiology and behavior. The chapter focuses on the American cockroach, Periplaneta americana. Periplaneta is selected because of its peculiar response to immobilization or stress and the clues that this may give about the effects of insecticides. © 1991 Academic Press Limited.