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Journal of Experimental Biology 39,669-677 (1962)
Published by Company of Biologists 1962

Bifunctional Muscles in the Thorax of Grasshoppers

DONALD M. WILSON ¹

¹ Department of Zoology, Yale University; Department of Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, California

1. Recording electrical activity of certain dorso-ventral muscles in the thorax of grasshoppers has shown that the same muscles and (in at least one muscle) the same motor units may be used to move either the wings or the legs.

2. The anatomical connexions are such that muscles which are antagonists with respect to the wings are synergists with respect to the legs, and vice versa.

3. These muscles, which operate in a nearly perfectly repeating, fixed pattern during flight, show complete independence during manuvres involving the legs and it is concluded that the flight pattern is not due to a fixed set of connexions between the motor neurons.

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