Suboesophageal DUM neurons innervate the principal neuropiles of the locust brain

Abstract

The morphology of the dorsal unpaired median (DUM ) neurons of the suboesophageal ganglion (SOG) of the migratory locust, Locusta migratoria , were studied by using intracellular staining. The SOG lacks segmental DUM neurons with peripheral axons. All DUM neurons are either intersegmentally projecting (towards the brain or the thoracic nerve cord) or they are local. In addition to previously described DUM neurons with axons in peripheral nerves of the brain (Bräunig 1990), the SOG contains DUM neurons which, in the brain, innervate principal neuropile areas such as the antennal lobes, the pedunculi and calyces of the mushroom body, and the central complex. The number and location of DUM cell bodies stained with intracellular fills is compared with those obtained with either backfilling cervical or circumoesophageal connectives, or octopamine-immunocytochemistry. Additional experiments show that the locust brain, like the SOG, lacks both segmental DUM neurons with peripheral axons, and axons descending into the ventral nerve cord.