A paper by Jeremy Niven and colleagues in the Jan. 12, 2010 issue of Current Biology provides evidence that locusts use vision to guide the placement of their front and middle legs when crossing gaps in uneven terrain. This video shows that, when a desert locust walks along a horizontal ladder, it makes directed movements to specific rungs in the absence of any previous contact with that rung. The video reveals a role for visual information in the placement of their front legs. For more information see http://smithsonianscience.org/2010/01/for-first-time-scientists-prove-locusts-use-vision-to-place-their-legs-when-walking/ (Video courtesy Dr. Jeremy Niven, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama.)
