Subgenual organ

Neuroanatomy of the subgenual organ, a sensory organ in Troglophilus neglectus. SGO is the Subgenual organ, pIO is the proximal intermediary organ and dIO is the distal intermediary organ

The subgenual organ is an organ in insects that is involved in the perception of sound. The name (Latin sub: "below" and genus: "knee") refers to the location of the organ just below the knee in the tibia of all legs in most insects.

The function of the organ is performed by aggregations of scolopidia, the unit mechanoreceptor in invertebrates. The organ is thought to be an evolutionary artifact of ancestral insects who used their legs to detect vibrations in the underlying substrate.[citation needed]

The anatomy and innervation of the organ is highly variable between species. However, the organ may be sensitive enough to detect less than 1 nm of displacement in the ground, and sometimes airborne sound waves.[1][2][3][4] The sensitivity of the organ varies from species to species; in Orthoptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera, sensitivity is on the order of one (or greater) kilohertz, while in Hemiptera sensitivity reaches only a few hundred hertz.[5]

  1. ^ Virant-Doberlet, Meta; Cokl, Andrej (2004). "Vibrational communication in insects". Neotropical Entomology. 33 (2): 121–134. doi:10.1590/S1519-566X2004000200001. ISSN 1519-566X.
  2. ^ R. F. Chapman; Stephen J. Simpson; Angela E. Douglas (January 2013). The Insects: Structure and Function. Cambridge University Press. p. 752. ISBN 978-0-521-11389-2.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference StraussStritih2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ John L. Capinera (11 August 2008). Encyclopedia of Entomology. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 864. ISBN 978-1-4020-6242-1.
  5. ^ Autrum, Hansjochem; Schneider, Wilfriede (1948). "Vergleichende Untersuchungen über den Erschütterungssinn der Insekten". Zeitschrift für vergleichende Physiologie. 31 (1): 77–88. doi:10.1007/BF00333879. ISSN 0340-7594.