Study On Antennal Sensilla Of Eight Species In Acrididae (Insecta: Orthoptera) With Scanning Electron Microscopy

Grasshoppers belong to Orthoptera, Acridoidea, they are important invertebrates andprimary consumers, which are also one of the severely harmful agricultural pests. Theclassifycation and the identification of grasshoppers lay the foundation for their disasterprevention.Insects mainly through apperceive sex pheromone or volatiles to seek mate, select foodand oviposition site. Antennal sensilla are important sense organ and there are lots ofolfactory, sensory and auditory sensilla on the surface of antennae. Since 20th century, theresearch on insect antennal sensilla has made remarkable progress. There are more than 1000species of grasshoppers in China. As to the aspect of antennal sensilla only 18 speciesbelonging to 17 genera 6 families have been studied. The research on antennal sensilla is notonly the basic theory in entomology, but also the scientific revelation in pest prevention. Thisis the first research on the antennal sensilla types, numbers and distribution of eight species inAcrididae with scanning electron microscopy(SEM). It can offer evidence in behavioralbiology, taxology and evolutionary biology of Acrididae. This research is consisted of two parts:(1)The differences of antennal sensilla types, numbers and distribution among Acrida L.,Chrysochraon Fisch, Euthystria Fieber, Mongolotettix Rehn, Chrysacris Zheng.(2)The differences of antennal sensilla types, numbers and distribution among Ch.changbaishanensis Ren et al, Ch. jiamusi Ren et al, Ch. heilongjiangensis Ren et al, Ch.liaoningensis Zheng.In conclusion: Thirteen types of antennal sensilla were find in eight species of Acrididae:trichoid sensilla(â… , â…¡), chaetic sensilla(â… , â…¡), basiconic sensilla(â… , â…¡, â…¢, â…£,â…¤), coeloconicsensilla, cavity sensilla, Bohm bristles, sporangium sensilla. There were remarkabledifferences among different genera of same family, as well as to different species of samegenus. It was concluded that the types, numbers and distribution of antennal sensilla wereimportant characteristics in classification and identification for different genera and siblingspecies in Acrididae.