Large abdominal mechanoreceptive sense organs in small plant-dwelling insects

Abstract

The Hemiptera, with approximately 98 000 species, is one of the largest insect orders. Most species feed by sucking sap from plant tissues and are thus often vectors for economically important phytopathogens. Well known within this group are the large cicadas (Cicadomorpha: Cicadoidea: Cicadidae) because they produce extremely loud airborne sounds. Less well known are their mostly tiny relatives, the leafhoppers, spittlebugs, treehoppers and planthoppers that communicate by silent vibrational signals. While the generation of these signals has been extensively investigated, the mechanisms of their perception are poorly understood. This study provides a complete description and three-dimensional reconstruction of a large and complex array of mechanoreceptors in the first abdominal segments of the Rhododendron leafhopper Graphocephala fennahi (Cicadomorpha: Membracoidea: Cicadellidae). Further, we identify homologous organs in the spittlebug Philaenus spumarius (Cicadomorpha: Cercopoidea: Aphrophoridae) and the planthopper Issus coleoptratus (Fulgoromorpha: Fulgoroidea: Issidae). Such large abdominal sensory arrays have not been found in any other insect orders studied so far. This indicates that these sense organs, together with the signal-producing tymbal organ, constitute a synapomorphy of the Tymbalia (Hemiptera excl. Sternorrhyncha). Our results contribute to the understanding of the evolution from substrate-borne to airborne communication in insects.