A Descending Brain Neuron Elicits Stridulation in the Cricket Gryllus bimaculatus (de Geer)

摘要

Crickets use an elaborate system of acoustic signals for intraspecific communication. Males produce long-lasting calling songs to attract females for mating. Calling songs consist of series of chirps, each containing three to four syllabes (Fig. 1 B, inset). During singing crickets raise their forewings (elytra) and rub them against each other. Sound is produced during the closing movement when the file of the right elytron scratches along the plectrum of the left one. Depending on the behavioural situation, male crickets may also produce a courtship song during courtship with a female or a rivalry song to respond to other males. The acoustic behaviour of crickets has attracted neurobiologists for almost 50 years. Huber was the first to pose the question of how singing behaviour is controlled by the cooperation of cephalic and thoracic ganglia. He elicitied Stridulation in restrained crickets by microlesions and by focal electrical stimulation within the brain, especially in the mushroom bodies and the central body, which are prominent neuropil structures in the proto-cerebrum.