Laboratoire de Morphologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, Institut de chimie, Université de Liège, B-4000 Liège, Belgium.
J Exp Biol. 2010 Sep 15;213(Pt 18):3230-6. doi: 10.1242/jeb.044701.
The anatomical structures of the sound-producing organ in Ophidion rochei males present an important panel of highly derived characters: three pairs of putatively slow sonic muscles; a neural arch that pivots; a rocker bone at the front pole of the swimbladder; a stretchable swimbladder fenestra; a swimbladder plate; and an internal cone that terminates in a pair of membranes in the caudal swimbladder. Male courtship calls are produced nocturnally and consist of trains of 10 to 40 pulses that increase in amplitude and decrease in rate before exhibiting alternating periods of ca. 84 and 111 ms. Each pulse includes an unusual waveform with two parts. Pulse part 1 is a single cycle followed by a longer duration pulse part that exhibits gradual damping. Sounds and morphology suggest two hypotheses on the sound-producing mechanism. The 'pulley' hypothesis would require an alternate contraction of the ventral and dorsal muscles to form the two parts of each pulse. The 'bow' hypothesis involves a release mechanism with the sustained contraction of the dorsal muscle during all of the call, and the rapid contraction/relaxation of the ventral muscle to form each pulse.
三对疑似慢速声肌；可枢转的神经弓；位于鳔前部的摇骨；可伸缩的鳔窗；鳔板；以及在尾部鳔内终止于一对膜的内锥。雄性求偶叫声在夜间产生，由 10 到 40 个脉冲组成的序列组成，在表现出约 84 和 111 毫秒交替周期之前，脉冲幅度增加，频率降低。每个脉冲包括一个不寻常的波形，有两个部分。脉冲部分 1 是一个单周期，随后是一个持续时间更长的脉冲部分，表现出逐渐阻尼。声音和形态表明了两种关于发声机制的假设。“滑轮”假说需要腹侧和背侧肌肉的交替收缩来形成每个脉冲的两个部分。“弓”假说涉及一种释放机制，在整个叫声期间，背侧肌肉持续收缩，而腹侧肌肉快速收缩/放松以形成每个脉冲。
