1968] 
Steiner — Behavioral Interactions 
26 
Description of responses represented by figures a to c. 
Fig. a. Raising abdomen. This response is typical of very early 
stages of the hunting phase, when the wasp makes only weak, slow 
abortive attempts to investigate or attack the cricket. The cricket 
typically comes back quickly to the original “resting posture” 0 , or 
alternatively gives w^ay to the wasp by a slight side movement of 
withdrawal. 
Fig. b. Raising abdomen and body in a tilted posture (“on tip- 
toes” ) . This can be considered a more accentuated, complete version 
of the preceding response, involving apparently no new element. 
Raising of both the abdomen and the whole body above ground level 
is accentuated, in response to attacks of the wasps generally more 
vigorous than in the preceding instance. 
Fig. c. Body swaying, in tilted posture, abdomen raised. New 
elements appear in this response, e.g., back and forth, side, or com- 
bined swaying movements performed in a jerky manner; extremities 
of legs generally are not lifted. 
This response is frequently associated with more intense and sus- 
tained, sometimes repeated attempts of investigation by the wasp. It 
is, like the preceding ones, typical of abortive attacks. 
At this stage of the intensity scale, threshold for escape seems 
nearly reached, but subsequent escape is the exception. 
Discussion of responses represented on figures a to c. 
Interactions shown in figures a to c appear to involve increasing 
levels of recruitment and mobilization of responses from the pre- 
viously resting cricket. Various movements of increasing amplitudes 
are apparently triggered. Displacements, which occur at a further 
stage (see figures f, g), probably involve higher levels of recruitment. 
If this interpretation is correct, swaying movements, (see fig. c), 
might represent the stage of transition from movements of the pre- 
viously resting cricket to displacements and escape. 
The response represented on figure c might express oscillations in 
competitive influences associated respectively with rest and escape, 
none of them being strong enough to override the other completely. 
If so this could lead to interpretations in terms of conflict or am- 
biguous situations, intention movements, ambivalent behavior, alter- 
nation, compromise behavior, etc. ( discussion of these terms and 
literature references are available, for instance^ in Hinde, 1966; 
Tinbergen, 1952). Alternatively, this response might be associated 
with non-detected special features of the interaction, which are not 
necessarily intensity-dependent. 
