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Journal of Experimental Biology 107,21-47 (1983)
Published by Company of Biologists 1983

Wing Hair Plates in Crickets: Physiological Characteristics and Connections with Stridulatory Motor Neurones

C.J.H. ELLIOTT ¹

¹ Max Planck Institut für Verhaltensphysiologie, Abteilung Huber, D-8131 Seewiesen, West Germany; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Sussex Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QG, U.K.

(1) Hairs in the subcostal hair plates of the wings of crickets have a high angular stiffness (5.5µNm rad¹) when bent about their base. The mean threshold required to elicit action potentials is 15°. Viscous drag from air movements will not deflect the hairs sufficiently to excite them; this will only occur when the hair is bent by the opposite wing.

(2) The hair sensillae project to the ventral association area of the mesothoracic ganglion, but the endings of the stridulatory motor neurones are all in dorsal or lateral neuropiles of the thoracic ganglia.

(3) Electrical stimulation of the hair plates evokes reliable EPSPs in opener (M99), closer (M90) and wing folding (M85) motor neurones, after latencies of 4–20 ms, depending on the neurone. Properties of the hairs and motor neurones suggest that these EPSPs in the wing folding muscle (M85) and closer (M90) could play an important role in the control of wing position seen in recent behavioural study.

Key words: Cricket stridulation, hair plate, motor neurone

Submitted on February 14, 1983
Accepted on March 23, 1983

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