Story perspectives

Heated Antenna Triggers Crickets’ Grooming, Boosting Sentience Debate

5/13/2026

Summary

Story summary

Prof Thomas White (University of Sydney) found that house crickets groom a 65 °C heated antenna, testing 40 males and 40 females against unheated or no-contact probes.
Crickets were over twice as likely to groom and spent about four times longer grooming, with care lasting minutes.
The New York Declaration’s invertebrate-consciousness recognition and the UK’s 2022 sentience ruling have spurred calls to protect farmed insects, given 370 billion Acheta domesticus are reared annually.

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Story summary

Prof Thomas White (University of Sydney) found that house crickets groom a 65 °C heated antenna, testing 40 males and 40 females against unheated or no-contact probes.
Crickets were over twice as likely to groom and spent about four times longer grooming, with care lasting minutes.
The New York Declaration’s invertebrate-consciousness recognition and the UK’s 2022 sentience ruling have spurred calls to protect farmed insects, given 370 billion Acheta domesticus are reared annually.