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Sensilla
A sensillum (plural ''sensilla'') is an arthropod sensory organ protruding from the cuticle of exoskeleton, or sometimes lying within or beneath it. Sensilla appear as small hairs or pegs over an individual's body. Inside each sensillum there are two to four sensory neurons. These neurons, or receptors, gather information about environment the arthropod is in: * Chemoreceptors (i.e. trichoid, basionic, coeloconic, placodea) * Mechanoreceptors (e.g.: bristle sensilla, campaniform sensilla, hair plates, chordotonal neurons) * Thermoreceptors * Hygroreceptors Most sensilla are specially shaped according to the type of information they are gathering. In spiders, slit sensilla are used to detect substrate vibrations, while trichobothria are used to detect air-borne vibrations. Chemoreceptors Chemo-reception is one of the most dominant senses in the insect kingdom. Many arthropods use chemical signals to locate food, shelter and mates. Other invertebrates have similar sensor ...
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Campaniform Sensilla
Campaniform sensilla are a class of mechanoreceptors found in insects, which respond to local stress and strain within the animal's cuticle. Campaniform sensilla function as Proprioception, proprioceptors that detect mechanical load as resistance to muscle contraction, similar to mammalian Golgi tendon organs. Sensory feedback from campaniform sensilla is integrated in the control of posture and locomotion. Structure Each campaniform sensillum consists of a flexible dome, which is embedded in a spongy socket within the cuticle and innervated by the dendrites of a single bipolar sensory neuron (see schematic cross-section). Campaniform sensilla are often oval-shaped with long axes of about 5-10 μm (see SEM). Campaniform sensilla are distributed across the body surface of many insects. The fruit fly ''Drosophila melanogaster'', for example, has over 680 sensilla. Campaniform sensilla are located in regions where stress is likely to be high, including on the legs, antennae, ...
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Slit Sensilla
The slit sensilla, also known as the slit sense organ, is a small mechanoreceptory organ or group of organs in the exoskeleton of arachnids which detects physical deformation or strain due to forces experienced by the animal. The organ appears in the vast majority of discovered arachnids, and is "remarkably consistent" in location and direction within each order. The arachnid slit sensilla corresponds to the campaniform sensilla found in insects. Slit sensilla tend to be widely distributed over the arachnid's exoskeleton, but have also been found to be grouped at specific locations and in a bundle of parallel lines; the latter distribution is referred to as a "lyriform organ". The term "lyriform organ" comes from the shape of such grouped slit sensilla, which resembles a lyre. Arachnids with lyriform slit sensilla are commonly used as experimental subjects for investigations into mechanosensation because the almost 2D structure of their slit sensilla allows for relatively simple u ...
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Bristle Sensilla
Bristle sensilla are a class of mechanoreceptors found in insects and other arthropods that respond to mechanical stimuli generated by the external world. As a result, they are considered exteroceptors. Bristle sensilla can be divided into two main types, macrochaete and microchaete, based on their size and physiology. The larger macrochaete are thicker and stouter than the smaller microchaete. Macrochaete are also more consistent in their number and distribution across individuals of the same species. Between species, the organization of macrochaete is more conserved among closely related species, whereas the organization of microchaete is more variable and less correlated with phylogenetic relatedness. Each bristle sensillum is composed of a hollow hair with its base fixed to the dendrite of a sensory neuron. The hair acts as a lever. When the hair is deflected, for example by dirt or parasites, force is exerted on the dendrite. This induces mechanotransduction channels to op ...
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Mechanoreceptor
A mechanoreceptor, also called mechanoceptor, is a sensory receptor that responds to mechanical pressure or distortion. Mechanoreceptors are located on sensory neurons that convert mechanical pressure into action potential, electrical signals that, in animals, are sent to the central nervous system. Vertebrate mechanoreceptors Cutaneous mechanoreceptors Cutaneous mechanoreceptors respond to mechanical stimuli that result from physical interaction, including pressure and vibration. They are located in the skin, like other cutaneous receptors. They are all innervated by Aβ fibers, except the mechanorecepting free nerve endings, which are innervated by A delta fiber, Aδ fibers. Cutaneous mechanoreceptors can be categorized by what kind of sensation they perceive, by the rate of adaptation, and by morphology. Furthermore, each has a different receptive field. By sensation * The Slowly Adapting type 1 (SA1) mechanoreceptor, with the Merkel corpuscle end-organ (also known as M ...
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Hair Plate
Hair plates are a type of Proprioception, proprioceptor found in the folds of insect joints. They consist of a cluster of hairs, in which each hair is innervated by a single Mechanosensation, mechanosensory neuron. Functionally, hair plates operate as "limit-detectors" by signaling the extremes of joint movement, which then drives reflexive leg movement. Hair plate location and anatomy Hair plates consist of a field of cuticular hairs, in which each hair is innervated by a single mechanosensory neuron (Figure 1). Hair plates are positioned within folds of cuticle at joints, and the associated hairs are deflected during joint movement. The number of hairs across and within hair plates can vary and hair plates are found on different body parts, including the legs, neck, and antennae. On the legs of insects, hair plates are found at the proximal joints (i.e. thorax-coxa, coxa-trochanter, and trochanter-femur joints) across the front, middle, and hind legs. Hair plate neurons projec ...
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Spider
Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all Order (biology), orders of organisms. Spiders are found worldwide on every continent except Antarctica, and have become established in nearly every land habitat. , 53,034 spider species in 136 Family (biology), families have been recorded by Taxonomy (biology), taxonomists. However, there has been debate among scientists about how families should be classified, with over 20 different classifications proposed since 1900. Anatomy, Anatomically, spiders (as with all arachnids) differ from other arthropods in that the usual body segmentation (biology), segments are fused into two Tagma (biology), tagmata, the cephalothorax or prosoma, and the opisthosoma, or abdomen, and joined by a small, cylindr ...
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Sensory Organ
A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the surroundings through the detection of stimuli. Although, in some cultures, five human senses were traditionally identified as such (namely sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing), many more are now recognized. Senses used by non-human organisms are even greater in variety and number. During sensation, sense organs collect various stimuli (such as a sound or smell) for transduction, meaning transformation into a form that can be understood by the brain. Sensation and perception are fundamental to nearly every aspect of an organism's cognition, behavior and thought. In organisms, a sensory organ consists of a group of interrelated sensory cells that respond to a specific type of physical stimulus. Via cranial and spinal nerves (nerves of the central and peripheral nervous systems that relay sensory information to and from the brain and body), the different ty ...
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Arthropod
Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metamerism (biology), metameric) Segmentation (biology), segments, and paired jointed appendages. In order to keep growing, they must go through stages of moulting, a process by which they shed their exoskeleton to reveal a new one. They form an extremely diverse group of up to ten million species. Haemolymph is the analogue of blood for most arthropods. An arthropod has an open circulatory system, with a body cavity called a haemocoel through which haemolymph circulates to the interior Organ (anatomy), organs. Like their exteriors, the internal organs of arthropods are generally built of repeated segments. They have ladder-like nervous systems, with paired Anatomical terms of location#Dorsal and ventral, ventral Ventral nerve cord, nerve cord ...
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Tardigrada
Tardigrades (), known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged Segmentation (biology), segmented micro-animals. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who called them . In 1776, the Italian biologist Lazzaro Spallanzani named them Tardigrada, which means 'slow walkers'. They live in diverse regions of Earth's biospheremountaintops, the deep sea, tropical rainforests, and the Antarctic. Tardigrades are among the most resilient animals known, with individual species able to survive extreme conditions – such as exposure to extreme temperatures, extreme pressures (both high and low), air deprivation, radiation, dehydration, and starvation – that would quickly kill most other forms of life. Tardigrades have survived exposure to outer space. There are about 1,500 known species in the phylum Tardigrada, a part of the superphylum Ecdysozoa. The earliest known fossil is from the Cambrian, some 500 m ...
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Onychophora
Onychophora (from , , "claws"; and , , "to carry"), commonly known as velvet worms (for their velvety texture and somewhat wormlike appearance) or more ambiguously as peripatus (after the first described genus, ''Peripatus''), is a phylum of elongate, soft-bodied, many-legged animals. In appearance they have variously been compared to worms with legs, caterpillars, and slugs. They prey upon other invertebrates, which they catch by ejecting an adhesive slime. Approximately 200 species of velvet worms have been described, although the true number is likely to be much greater. The two extant families of velvet worms are Peripatidae and Peripatopsidae. They show a peculiar distribution, with the peripatids being predominantly equatorial and tropical, while the peripatopsids are all found south of the equator. It is the only phylum within Animalia that is wholly endemic to terrestrial environments, at least among extant members. Velvet worms are generally considered close relatives o ...
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Trichobothria
Trichobothria (singular trichobothrium) are elongate setae ("hairs") present in arachnids, various orders of insects, and myriapods that function in the detection of airborne vibrations and currents, and electrical charge. In 1883, Friedrich Dahl observed that they were deflected by the sound waves from a violin and labelled them 'hearing hairs'. Morphology Unlike the ordinary setae, which are tapered, the trichobothria have the same gauge throughout their length. They fit into the bottom of a broad and deep cup to which connects a membrane with extreme flexibility which adds an extraordinary mobility to them. The least air vibration is able to get them moving and to excite the small group of sensory cells which ensures their innervation. Distribution Trichobothria are present in most orders of the Arachnida, except in Solifugae, Ricinulei and Opiliones The Opiliones (formerly Phalangida) are an Order (biology), order of arachnids, Common name, colloquially known as harv ...
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Chordotonal Organ
Chordotonal organs are stretch receptor organs found only in insects and crustaceans. They are located at most joints and are made up of clusters of scolopidia that either directly or indirectly connect two joints and sense their movements relative to one another. They can have both Exteroception, extero- and Proprioception, proprioceptive functions, for example sensing auditory stimuli or leg movement. The word was coined by Vitus Graber in 1882, though he interpreted them as being stretched between two points like a string, sensing vibrations through resonance. Structure Chordotonal organs can be composed of a single Scolopidia, scolopidium with only a single sensory, bipolar neuron (such as the Tympanal organ, tympanal ear of a notodontid moth), or up to several thousand scolopidia, each equipped with up to four sensory neurons (as in the mosquito Johnston's organ). The bipolar sensory neurons each have an apical dendritic structure with a cilium densely packed with microtubu ...
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