Effects of Wing Campaniform Sensilla Lesions on Stridulation in Crickets

The degradations in the cricket's calling song after lesions of the cubital campaniform sensilla (CCS) are investigated using extracellular recording and angular movement recording techniques. In the intact male, nerve potentials from the CCS during the closing stroke are demonstrated. In the lesioned male, syllable shortenings and missing syllables can be traced to abnormalities in the wing motion: irregular stops (‘sticking'), anomalously high closing speeds with sound emission (‘overspeed'), or high closing speeds without sound emission (‘slipping') are observed. Despite these defects, the activation pattern of the main opener and closer muscles remains completely unaffected. The defects are interpreted as disturbance of a regulatory system normally maintaining proper engaging forces of the wings.