Research shows patterns of aggressive behavior among crickets, with researchers pointing out how male crickets meet in a less-than-friendly manner, beginning by fencing with their antenna and then fighting more fiercely with their mandibles until one cricket surrenders. The winner can still fight, but the loser usually must wait 24 hours before being able to battle again. This behavior has been utilized and nurtured by Chinese gamblers who bet on cricket matches and who have found ways of getting the losing crickets riled up so they will continue to fight, and it has been found that the key is to get the cricket to fly, according to a recent report in Nature by Hans A. Holmann of the University of Leipzig in Germany and now Stanford University and his colleague Paul A. Stevenson, who demonstrated that crickets that fly are made ready for combat once more. It is not clear why this is so, given that the nerve centers controlling flight and aggression are separate, though it is believed that the connecting neurons from the brain send a signal from the muscles to the brain that resets aggression. This study agrees with findings from other research, though it also points out how little we know about links between behaviors.
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