Abstract: The yellow-spined bamboo locust,Ceracris kiangsu (Orthoptera: Oedipodidae) is the first reported insect with chewing mouthpart possessing mud-puddling behavior. To better understand the driving factors for the mud-puddling behavior of C. kiangsu, we analyzed the effects of water imbalance on the mud-puddling behavior of the yellowspined bamboo locust. The results showed that water uptake was one of the important factors driving mud-puddling behavior ofC. kiangsu. C. kiangsu adults visited wet filter paper more frequently and stayed longer time on wet filter paper than dry filter paper. Body’s water content of the adults significantly increased after puddling (P=0.008). Ammonium hydrogencarbonate was the attractant and water was the phagostimulant towards C. kiangsu adults. Body size of femaleC. kiangsu adults was significantly larger than that of the males. The number of puddling female adults was much more than that of males (♀∶♂=7.75∶1), which is probably closely related to the larger size of female adults. Moreover, moving towards and staying in moist regions was another approach to keep body water balance.

Key words: maize, model., biomass\ photosynthate allocation