Die Entwicklung der Tympanalorgane und ihrer invers gerichteten Skolopidien bei Wachsmotten (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae: Galleriinae)

Abstract

Two moth species, the Lesser wax moth, Achroia grisella (Fabricius 1794) and the related Greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella (Linnaeus 1758), have pairs of trunk tympanic organs, situated on the ventral part of the first abdominal segment. They work as sound pressure receivers. Acoustical signals which meet a tympanic membrane, formed by the integument, set it vibrating: These signals are transmitted over a scoloparium with invers lying receptors to the central nervous system as excitation. The tympanic organs consist of thinned translucent double membranes - the tympana - and a whitish conjunctiva in front of them which cover the tympanal basin where the inverted scoloparium is spread out. The ontogeny of these paired organs shows, that their differentiation is already initiated in the prepupal stage. Inverted larval chordotonal organs are used during the pupal stage for the construction of the tympanic organs. The principal constituting processes occur during the pupal stage and are not finished until the imago has hatched.