Coupled Biological Oscillators in a Cave Insect

Insects that live in the interior of caves show the basic internal temporal organization of coupled oscillators. An analysis is made of the coupled moulting and oviposition cycles of Folsomia candida, a cave-dwelling Collembolan, with regard to their oscillatory nature, their phase dependent responses to external perturbations, the effect of coupling on these responses, and conjecture about the link of these cycles with circadian clocks in other organisms.