Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Cuba, Havana, Cuba.
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Sistemática, Taxonomia Animal e Biodiversidade, Museu de Zoologia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
PLoS One. 2020 Apr 23;15(4):e0231486. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231486. eCollection 2020.
Vom Rath's organ, located at the distal end of the third segment of the labial palp, is one of the recognized synapomorphies of Lepidoptera (Insecta). Information about the structural and histological morphology of this organ is sparse. The structure of vom Rath's organ in four species of Nymphalidae, three frugivorous: Fountainea ryphea (Charaxinae: Anaeini), Morpho helenor achillaena (Satyrinae: Morphini) and Hamadryas epinome (Biblidinae: Ageroniini), and the nectarivorous species Aeria olena (Danainae: Ithomiini) is described by means of scanning electron microscopy and histology. The species showed significant differences in the cavity shape, setal morphology and arrangement, opening shape and location, associated with the organization of cell groups, type of axon, and degree of development. These differences do not seem to be related to feeding habit. No cell groups were found in Actinote thalia (Heliconiinae: Acraeini) and Heliconius erato phyllis (Heliconiinae: Heliconiini), and for the first time the absence of vom Rath's organ is documented in the clade Ditrysia. A terminology is proposed to improve understanding of the organ morphology, with an extensive analysis of the previous descriptions.
拉特氏器位于下唇须的第三节末端，是鳞翅目（昆虫）的公认的同源特征之一。关于该器官的结构和组织形态学的信息很少。本文通过扫描电子显微镜和组织学描述了四种蛱蝶科（Charaxinae：Anaeini）的费朗氏毛蛱蝶（Fountainea ryphea）、摩佛蝴蝶（Morpho helenor achillaena）和哈马德拉斯斑蛱蝶（Hamadryas epinome）、以及三种吸食花蜜的蛱蝶科（Danainae：Ithomiini）的阿瑞亚奥莲娜（Aeria olena）的拉特氏器的结构。这些物种在腔室形状、刚毛形态和排列、开口形状和位置等方面存在显著差异，这与细胞群的组织、轴突类型和发育程度有关。这些差异似乎与食性无关。在Actinote thalia（Heliconiinae：Acraeini）和Heliconius erato phyllis（Heliconiinae：Heliconiini）中没有发现细胞群，这是首次在双翅目类群 Ditrysia 中记录到拉特氏器的缺失。本文提出了一种术语，以改善对该器官形态的理解，并对以前的描述进行了广泛的分析。
