Stanchak Kathryn E, Deora Tanvi, Weber Alison I, Hickner Michelle K, Moalin Abna, Abdalla Laila, Daniel Thomas L, Brunton Bingni W
University of Washington, Department of Biology, Seattle, WA.
University of Washington, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Seattle, WA.
bioRxiv. 2023 Jun 28:2023.06.26.546554. doi: 10.1101/2023.06.26.546554.
Flight control requires active sensory feedback, and insects have many sensors that help them estimate their current locomotor state, including campaniform sensilla, which are mechanoreceptors that sense strain resulting from deformation of the cuticle. Campaniform sensilla on the wing detect bending and torsional forces encountered during flight, providing input to the flight feedback control system. During flight, wings experience complex spatio-temporal strain patterns. Because campaniform sensilla detect only local strain, their placement on the wing is presumably critical for determining the overall representation of wing deformation; however, how these sensilla are distributed across wings is largely unknown. Here, we test the hypothesis that campaniform sensilla are found in stereotyped locations across individuals of , a hawkmoth. We found that although campaniform sensilla are consistently found on the same veins or in the same regions of the wings, their total number and distribution can vary extensively. This suggests that there is some robustness to variation in sensory feedback in the insect flight control system. The regions where campaniform sensilla are consistently found provide clues to their functional roles, although some patterns might be reflective of developmental processes. Collectively, our results on intraspecific variation in campaniform sensilla placement on insect wings will help reshape our thinking on the utility of mechanosensory feedback for insect flight control and guide further experimental and comparative studies.
飞行控制需要主动的感觉反馈，昆虫有许多传感器来帮助它们估计自己当前的运动状态，包括钟形感器，它们是能感知表皮变形所产生应变的机械感受器。翅膀上的钟形感器能检测飞行过程中遇到的弯曲和扭转力，为飞行反馈控制系统提供输入信息。在飞行过程中，翅膀会经历复杂的时空应变模式。由于钟形感器只能检测局部应变，它们在翅膀上的位置可能对于确定翅膀变形的整体表现至关重要；然而，这些感器在翅膀上的分布情况在很大程度上尚不清楚。在这里，我们测试了一个假设，即在一种天蛾的个体中，钟形感器存在于固定的位置。我们发现，虽然在相同的翅脉或翅膀的相同区域总能找到钟形感器，但它们的总数和分布可能有很大差异。这表明昆虫飞行控制系统中的感觉反馈变化具有一定的稳健性。钟形感器始终存在的区域为其功能作用提供了线索，尽管有些模式可能反映了发育过程。总体而言，我们关于昆虫翅膀上钟形感器位置种内变异的研究结果将有助于重塑我们对机械感觉反馈在昆虫飞行控制中的作用的认识，并指导进一步的实验和比较研究。
