Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- PART I The Head, Ingestion, Utilization and Distribution of Food
- PART II The Thorax and Locomotion
- PART III The Abdomen, Reproduction and Development
- PART IV The Integument, Gas Exchange and Homeostasis
- PART V Communication
- 20 Nervous system
- 21 Endocrine system
- 22 Vision
- 23 Mechanoreception
- 24 Chemoreception
- 25 Visual signals: color and light production
- 26 Mechanical communication: producing sound and substrate vibrations
- 27 Chemical communication: pheromones and chemicals with interspecific significance
- Taxonomic index
- Subject index
23 - Mechanoreception
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- PART I The Head, Ingestion, Utilization and Distribution of Food
- PART II The Thorax and Locomotion
- PART III The Abdomen, Reproduction and Development
- PART IV The Integument, Gas Exchange and Homeostasis
- PART V Communication
- 20 Nervous system
- 21 Endocrine system
- 22 Vision
- 23 Mechanoreception
- 24 Chemoreception
- 25 Visual signals: color and light production
- 26 Mechanical communication: producing sound and substrate vibrations
- 27 Chemical communication: pheromones and chemicals with interspecific significance
- Taxonomic index
- Subject index
Summary
Mechanoreception is the perception of any mechanical distortion of the body. This may result from touching an object or from the impact of vibrations borne through the air, water or the substratum, and thus mechanoreception includes the sense of hearing. It also includes distortions of the body which arise from the stance of the insect and from the force exerted by gravity, so some mechanoreceptors are proprioceptors. Three broad structural categories of mechanoreceptor are present in insects: cuticular structures with bipolar neurons; subcuticular structures with bipolar neurons, known as chordotonal organs; internal multipolar neurons which function as stretch receptors.
Definition: The term sensillum (plural: sensilla) refers to the basic structural and functional unit of cuticular mechanoreceptors and chemoreceptors. It includes the cuticular structure, the neuron or neurons, the associated sheath cells with the cavities they enclose and the structures they produce. Fig. 23.1 shows the basic elements of a sensillum. Sensilla often occur singly, but may also be grouped together to form functional units.
Review: McIver, 1985
CUTICULAR MECHANORECEPTORS
Cuticular mechanoreceptors fall mainly into two classes: hair-like projections from the cuticle with a basal socket, and dome-like campaniform sensilla. Both types have similar arrangements of neurons and sheath cells.
Structure
Cuticular components
Hair-like structures Most of the larger hairs on an insect's body are mechanoreceptors. There are no pores (apart from the molting pore, see below) in the cuticle of hairs that function solely as mechanoreceptors, and they are, therefore, known as aporous sensilla.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The InsectsStructure and Function, pp. 610 - 635Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998
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