A morphological and electrophysiological inventory of labellar taste hairs of the blowfly Calliphora vicina

Abstract

The present work completes an inventory of response characteristics of labellar taste hairs of the blowfly Calliphora vicina to salt stimulation and their relationship to the arrangement of the hairs. The morphology and arrangement of the labellar hairs appears to correspond in considerable detail to those of the blowfly Phormia regina and the same classification of hairs into six morphological groups can be adopted. The labellum of a female Calliphora appears to bear on average 132 taste hairs. These hairs can be divided into three physiological types, based on their responses to 1 M KCl. In addition to the previously described type A response pattern (generated mainly in ‘largest’ hairs) and type B pattern (‘large’ and ‘intermediate’ hairs), a third type (C) appears to be present in all ‘bristles’, ‘marginal’ hairs, and ‘different’ hairs studied. The implications of these findings with respect to the possible modes of coding employed by the labellar taste organ are discussed.