The shape of wind-receptor hairs of cricket and cockroach |
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Authors: | T Kumagai T Shimozawa Y Baba |
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Institution: | (1) Neuro-Cybernetics Laboratory, Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060 Japan Fax: +81-11-706-4971 e-mail: tateo@nept.es.hokudai.ac.jp, JP |
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Abstract: | We examined the exact shapes of the thread-like wind-receptor hairs in the cricket and cockroach. The diameters of hairs
at various distances from the hair tip as measured by scanning electron microscopy revealed unexpected hair shapes. We had
expected, a priori, that the shape of the hair would be a slender linearly tapered cone, but the measurements revealed hairs
in the form of extremely elongated paraboloids. The diameter of the wind-receptor hairs varies with the square root of the
distance from the hair tip, i.e., the diameter rapidly increases with the distance from the tip and is asymptotic to the base
diameter.
Both the cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus, and the cockroach, Periplaneta americana, showed the same hair shape. In both insects, the formation of the wind-receptor hair during metamorphosis seems to be controlled
by a common cytological program. The shape of the hair constrains the mobility of the wind-receptor hair, because both the
drag force caused by moving air and the moment of inertia of motion dynamics are functions of shaft diameter. The shape of
the hair is a biological trait which affects the sensory information transmitted to the central nervous system.
Accepted: 24 February 1998 |
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Keywords: | Cercal filiform hair Cricket Cockroach Mechanical properties Wind reception |
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