The ultrastructure of the sensory plaque organs of the antennae the chinese lantern fly, Pyrops Candelaria L., (Homoptera, Fulgoridae).

The plaque organs of Pyrops consist of elaborately folded, finely perforated cuticular areas, each associated with numerous bipolar sensory cells organised in groups. The proximal, mitochondrial region of each dendrite narrows to reveal a ciliary ultrastructure. The ciliary fibrils pass into a highly vesiculated region and beyond this are succeeded by a dense array of neurotubules. Peripherally the dendrites proliferate numerous fine branches from which finer filaments extend into the cuticular pores. The plaques are considered to be complex olfactory organs evolved from groups of sensilla basiconica.