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Thoracic Proprioceptors in the Flight System of Locusts

Nature volume 193, pages 498–499 (1962)Cite this article

Abstract

IT has been found recently1 that both in the mesothorax and in the metathorax of adult desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria, Forskaål) the nerve IBb2 (Ewer2) conducts centripetally propagated impulses related to wing position and movement. Neither the sense organs concerned nor their functional significance was known. I have now found that the impulses originate in two different sense organs, a stretch receptor containing a single neurone and a scolopoforous organ. They are located at the body wall in the region of the sub-alar sclerite quite close to each other. So far, proprioceptors have not been observed inside the thorax of adult insects3, except for the intersegmental muscle receptors referred to by Slifer and Finlayson4 in the stick insect.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zoophysiological Laboratory B, The University of Copenhagen, 36 Juliane Maries Vej, Copenhagen O

    E. GETTRUP

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  1. E. GETTRUP
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GETTRUP, E. Thoracic Proprioceptors in the Flight System of Locusts. Nature 193, 498–499 (1962). https://doi.org/10.1038/193498a0

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