Organs of sound reception in invertebrates
- Key People:
- Georg von Békésy
- Related Topics:
- human ear
- inner ear
- bone conduction
- hearing
- air conduction
It has long been believed that at least some insects can hear. Chief attention has been given to those that make distinctive sounds (e.g., katydids, crickets, and cicadas) because it was naturally assumed that these insects produce signals for communication purposes. Organs suitable for hearing have been found in insects at various locations on the thorax and abdomen and, in one group (mosquitoes), on the head.
Among the many orders of insects, hearing is known to exist in only a few: Orthoptera (crickets, grasshoppers, katydids), Homoptera (cicadas), Heteroptera (bugs), Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), and Diptera (flies). In the Orthoptera, ears are present, and the ability to perceive sounds has been well established. The ears of katydids and crickets are found on the first walking legs; those of grasshoppers are on the first segment of the abdomen. Cicadas are noted for the intensity of sound produced by some species and for the elaborate development of the ears, which are located on the first segment of the abdomen. The waterboatman, a heteropteran, is a small aquatic insect with an ear on the first segment of the thorax. Moths have simple ears that are located in certain species on the posterior part of the thorax and in others on the first segment of the abdomen. Among the Diptera, only mosquitoes are known to possess ears; they are located on the head as a part of the antennae.
All the insects just mentioned have a pair of organs for which there is good evidence of auditory function. Other structures of simpler form that often have been considered to be sound receptors occur widely within these insect groups as well as in others. There is strong evidence that some kind of hearing exists in two other insect orders: the Coleoptera (beetles) and the Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps). In these orders, however, receptive organs have not yet been positively identified.
Types of insect auditory structures
Four structures found in insects have been considered as possibly serving an auditory function: hair sensilla, antennae, cercal organs, and tympanal organs.
Hair sensilla
Many specialized structures on the bodies of insects seem to have a sensory function. Among these are hair sensilla, each of which consists of a hair with a base portion containing a nerve supply. Because the hairs have been seen to vibrate in response to tones of certain frequencies, it has been suggested that they are sound receptors. It seems more likely, however, that the sensilla primarily mediate the sense of touch and that their response to sound waves is only incidental to that function.
Antennae and antennal organs
Many sensory functions have been attributed to the antennae of insects, and it is believed that they serve both as tactual and as smell receptors. In some species, the development of elaborate antennal plumes and brushlike terminations has led to the suggestion that they also serve for hearing. This suggestion is supported by positive evidence only in the case of the mosquito, especially the male, in which the base of the antenna is an expanded sac containing a large number of sensory units known as scolophores. These structures, found in many places in the bodies of insects, commonly occur across joints or body segments, where they probably serve as mechanoreceptors for movement. When the scolophores are associated with any structure that is set in motion by sound, however, the arrangement is that of a sound receptor.
In the basic structure of the scolophore, four cells (base cell, ganglion cell, sheath cell, and terminal cell), together with an extracellular body called a cap, constitute a chain. Extending outward from the ganglion cell is the cilium, a hairlike projection that, because of its position, acts as a trigger in response to any relative motion between the two ends of the chain. The sheath cell with its scolopale provides support and protection for the delicate cilium. Two types of enclosing cells (fibrous cells and cells of Schwann) surround the ganglion and sheath cells. The ganglion cell has both a sensory and a neural function; it sends forth its own fibre (axon) that connects to the central nervous system.
In the mosquito ear the scolophores are connected to the antenna and are stimulated by vibrations of the antennal shaft. Because the shaft vibrates in response to the oscillating air particles, this ear is of the velocity type. It is supposed that stimulation is greatest when the antenna is pointed toward the sound source, thereby enabling the insect to determine the direction of sounds. The male mosquito, sensitive only to the vibration frequencies of the hum made by the wings of the female in his own species, flies in the direction of the sound and finds the female for mating. For the male yellow fever mosquito, the most effective (i.e., apparently best heard) frequency has been found to be 384 hertz, or cycles per second, which is in the middle of the frequency range of the hum of females of this species. The antennae of insects other than the mosquito and its relatives probably do not serve a true auditory function.
Cercal organs
The cercal organ, which is found at the posterior end of the abdomen in such insects as cockroaches and crickets, consists of a thick brush of several hundred fine hairs. When an electrode is placed on the nerve trunk of the organ, which has a rich nerve supply, a discharge of impulses can be detected when the brush is exposed to sound. Sensitivity extends over a fairly wide range of vibration frequencies, from below 100 to perhaps as high as 3,000 hertz. As observed in the cockroach, the responses to sound waves up to 400 hertz have the same frequency as that of the stimulus. Although the cercal organ is reported to be extremely sensitive, precise measurements remain to be carried out. It is possible, nevertheless, that this structure, which is another example of a velocity type of sound receptor, is primarily auditory in function.