11/17/2015

Major categories of Sense Organs

1. Mechanoreceptors (movement: tactation, proprioception,
and hearing)
• Trichoid sensilla
• Placoid sensilla
• Campaniform sensilla
• Chordotonal sensilla
2. Chemoreceptors (chemicals: substrate & airborne)
• Trichoid sensilla
• Cone or Basicone (basiconic) peg sensilla
• Coeloconic peg sensilla
• Sensory pits
3. Photoreceptors (photons: light and heat)
4. Less common types:
• Thermoreceptors (temperature: e.g., mammalian parasites)
• Hygroreceptors (humidity: e.g., some beetles, lice)
• Magnetoreceptors (magnetic fields: e.g., bees)

base of seta
TRICHOID SENSILLUM Mechanoreceptors
vacuole
scolopale PLACOID SENSILLUM

cuticle membrane
scolopale
tormogen epidermis
cell
sense cell
trichogen cell
axon tormogen cell

sense cells
CAMPANIFORM SENSILLUM axon bundle
thickened bar
outer lamella
inner lamella
cuticle
scolopale
dendrite CHORDOTONAL SENSILLUM
tormogen cell epid.

attachment scolopale cap

sense or cap cell
cell scolopale rod

scolopale or
envelope cell

fibrous sheath cell glial cell

(not always present)

neuron

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Trichoid sensilla from Anopheles mosquito antenna

(tactation)

Placoid sensilla
on honey bee
flagellomeres
(tactation)

pedicel
flagellum

scape

1 mm

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Campaniform sensilla
(cockroach leg: proprioception)

mat of trichoid sensilla

membrane
hardened cuticle
HAIR PLATES or HAIR BEDS
(proprioception)

SUBGENUAL ORGAN
axons
sense cells TYMPANAL ORGAN
(neurons)
Chordotonal scolopale
tympanal membrane

sensilla (envelope)
cell cap cell
(mostly, hearing) cap cell
fibrous sheath cell
accessory
cell neuron
(sense
cell)
scolopale cuticle
axon bundle
epidermis
JOHNSTON’S ORGAN
flagellum STRETCH RECEPTOR
(proprioception)
nerve axons
pedicel axon
outer ring of
nerve cell body scolopidia multi-
polar
inner ring of neuron muscle
scolopale cells
scolopidia
scape
axon bundles

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Hair plates: left prosternal organ in a mantis

(Dictyoptera: Mantodea -- proprioception)

prosternal organ

Joe Singleton 2001

base of head

neck sclerites

Johnston’s organ – whirligig beetles

(Coleoptera: Gyrinidae -- tactation)

water surface

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Johnston’s organ – mosquitoes

(Diptera: Culicidae -- hearing)

Male starts, then

matches female
frequency (Gibson
& Russell 2006)

Tympanal organs (Orthopteroid insects – hearing)

katydid ear
(Tettigoniidae) scolopale cells

sensory
neurons

cap cells

tympanum

mantis ear grasshopper ear

(ultrasound) (Acrididae)
(Mantidae)

tympanal membrane

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More tympanal organs (Cicadidae)

male

(approx. 1500 chordotonal sensilla per tympanum)

More tympanal organs (Lepidoptera: bat detection )

Night-flying butterfly,
Hedylidae: at base of
wing (ultrasound)

Night-flying moth, Noctuidae:

rear of thorax (ultrasound)

tracheal sac tracheal sac

TWO
A1 & A2 chordotonal
sensilla

B cell
tracheal
sac tympanal
membrane
tracheal sac
right ear

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More tympanal organs

(Chrysopidae: bat detection )

scolopidia
(≈ 25)
accessory & cap cells

tympanal
(to wing tip) membrane

Lee Miller, 1970, ‘71, ‘75

C

Tympanal organ (to wing tip)

swelling

Chemoreceptors peg
openings in cuticle
TRICHOID
branching dendrites SENSILLUM
(hole in tip)
BASICONIC PEG
cuticle
(thin-walled)
scolopale
vacuole
tormogen cell
epidermis
trichogen cell
sensory neurons axon bundle COELOCONIC PEG
opening in cuticle opening (peg)

SENSORY PIT
(found in all insects)
peg
opening

vacuole
scolopale
sensory trichogen cell
>30,000 in Apidae! peg tormogen
cell sensory neurons
epidermis
axon bundle
scolopale
neurons &
supporting cells

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Basiconic peg sensilla

Anopheles mosquito antenna

Heliothis
moth
haustellum

Coeloconic peg from Anopheles mosquito antenna

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Male moth antennae: the gold standard for olfaction

> 70,000
olfactory
sensors

Trail-following
in ants:
another olfactory
tour de force

An Old World army ant, Aenictus sp.

More than 40 glands

secrete complexes of
chemicals in ants.

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The insect visual sense: Photoreception

Light: Visible, IR, UV (different λ’s)

Major categories of
visual sense organs
1. Dermal receptors (simple epidermal cells)
• many larval insects
• all stages of cockroaches
• in cephalopharyngeal skeleton of muscoid maggots
2. Dorsal ocelli (“true ocelli”)
• 4 (ancestor)  3 (middle one can be “bilobed”)  2  0
• …or 2 (ancestor)  3 (Crustacea + Insecta)  2  0
• can’t form an image
• fast response time; responds to very low levels of light
3. Stemmata (“lateral ocelli”)
• larvae of just about all Hemimetabola (Endopterygota)
• capable of forming an image (but may not use it)
4. Compound eyes (multi-faceted)
• Not in larval Hemimetabola
• primary visual sense organs of insects

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Dorsal (true) ocelli – damselfly (Odonata: Zygoptera)

Dorsal Ocellus

lens

retinal apparatus

Simple eyes: stemmata (“lateral ocelli”) – larvae of Lepidoptera

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corneagen cells corneal lens

cuticle
epidermis

DORSAL OCELLUS pigment cells

pigment cell
retinula (sense) cell
rhabdom
retinula cell
ocellar nerve
to protocerebrum cross-section of retinal apparatus

STEMMA
(“lateral ocellus”)

corneal lens

cuticle
epidermis
crystalline cone (lens)
corneagen cells
retinula cells
ocellar nerve
pigment to protocerebrum
rhabdom

ocellar nerve (optic nerve)

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