Sensory and Neuronal Mechanisms Underlying Acoustic Communication in Orthopteran Insects

Abstract

In Orthoptera, intraspecific acoustic communication occurs during the period of reproduction of the adult insects and is realized by means of species-specific sound signals. These signals are generated by the males only in crickets, but by both sexes in grasshoppers. Periodic movements which produce the sound are made either with the front wings in crickets and tettigonid grasshoppers or with the hindlegs in acridid grasshoppers. Auditory organs located within the front legs in crickets and tettigonid grasshoppers or laterally within the 1st abdominal segment in acridid grasshoppers receive the acoustic information which is processed in certain parts of the CNS. The auditory input can give rise to phonokinetic behaviour in the females of crickets and grasshoppers and to acoustic responses in one of the sexes (crickets) or in both the sexes (grasshoppers).