Selective forces on origin, adaptation and reduction of tympanal ears in insects

Strauß, Johannes; Stumpner, Andreas

doi:10.1007/s00359-014-0962-7

Cited by 41 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 168 publications

(233 reference statements)

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“…Insects are no exception, having evolved tympanal hearing 19 independent times (Hoy et al, 1989;Strauß Stumpner, 2015;Yager, 2012) as well as other forms of particle displacement hearing, e.g. antennae (Gopfert and Hennig, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hearing on the fly: the effects of wing position on noctuid moth hearing

Gordon

Klenschi

Windmill

2017

Journal of Experimental Biology

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The ear of the noctuid moth has only two auditory neurons, A1 and A2, which function in detecting predatory bats. However, the noctuid's ears are located on the thorax behind the wings. Therefore, as these moths need to hear during flight, it was hypothesized that wing position may affect their hearing. The wing was fixed in three different positions: up, flat and down. An additional subset of animals was measured with freely moving wings. In order to negate any possible acoustic shadowing or diffractive effects, all wings were snipped, leaving the proximal-most portion and the wing hinge intact. Results revealed that wing position plays a factor in threshold sensitivity of the less sensitive auditory neuron A2, but not in the more sensitive neuron A1. Furthermore, when the wing was set in the down position, fewer A1 action potentials were generated prior to the initiation of A2 activity. Analyzing the motion of the tympanal membrane did not reveal differences in movement due to wing position. Therefore, these neural differences arising from wing position are proposed to be due to other factors within the animal such as different muscle tensions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hearing on the fly: the effects of wing position on noctuid moth hearing

Gordon

Klenschi

Windmill

2017

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…In insect taxa, tympanic ears evolved from vibrationsensitive or from stretch-sensitive organs (Strauß and Stumpner, 2015). These are scolopidial chordotonal organs and were the precursor organs for all moth tympanic ears (Eggers, 1928;Boyan, 1993;Lewis and Fullard, 1996;Hasenfuss, 1997;Yack and Fullard, 1993;Yack, 1992Yack, , 2004.…”

Section: Evolution and Development Of The Tympanic Earmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simple ears – flexible behavior: Information processing in the moth auditory pathway

et al. 2015

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Lepidoptera evolved tympanic ears in response to echolocating bats. Comparative studies have shown that moth ears evolved many times independently from chordotonal organs. With only 1 to 4 receptor cells, they are one of the simplest hearing organs. The small number of receptors does not imply simplicity, neither in behavior nor in the neural circuit. Behaviorally, the response to ultrasound is far from being a simple reflex. Moths' escape behavior is modulated by a variety of cues, especially pheromones, which can alter the auditory response. Neurally the receptor cell(s) diverges onto many interneurons, enabling parallel processing and feature extraction. Ascending interneurons and sound-sensitive brain neurons innervate a neuropil in the ventrolateral protocerebrum. Further, recent electrophysiological data provides the first glimpses into how the acoustic response is modulated as well as how ultrasound influences the other senses. So far, the auditory pathway has been studied in noctuids.The findings agree well with common computational principles found in other insects. However, moth ears also show unique mechanical and neural adaptation. Here, we first describe the variety of moths' auditory behavior, especially the co-option of ultrasonic signals for intraspecific communication. Second, we describe the current knowledge of the neural pathway gained from noctuid moths. Finally, we argue that Galleriinae which show negative and positive phonotaxis, are an interesting model species for future electrophysiological studies of the auditory pathway and multimodal sensory integration, and so are ideally suited for the study of the evolution of behavioral mechanisms given a few receptors [Current Zoology 61 (2): 292-302, 2015].

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“…In the meantime a tremendous progress has been made regarding our understanding of insect hearing (Gerhardt and Huber 2002;Hedwig 2013). This is partly due to the bewildering variety of insect ears having evolved independently many times, and virtually anywhere on the insect body such as on the tibia, abdomen, thorax, wing, mouthparts or the base of the neck (reviews: Hoy and Robert 1996;Yack 2004;Strauß and Stumpner 2015). Insect hearing organs exist as two basic forms: (1) either as tympanal ears with a thin cuticular membrane, an air-filled cavity behind it and a chordotonal organ directly or indirectly coupled mechanically to the tympanum (Robert and Hoy 1998)-these ears respond to sound pressure changes; or (2) as nontympanal hearing organs which respond to the air particle velocity.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, we have to ask what were the primary selective forces driving the development and maintenance of ears? The review by Strauß and Stumpner (2015) discusses various constraints that may have led to compromise features of hearing organs and downstream neuronal processing. A particularly interesting sort of constraints becomes evident if we focus on sex differences in hearing systems.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%