The tuning of auditory receptors in bushcrickets.

The auditory organ of bushcrickets consists of an array of chordotonal sensilla in the insect's foreleg. Physiological recordings from these sensilla demonstrate that the individual receptors are tuned to specific sound frequencies and that the array is tonotopically organised. This frequency selectivity and tonotopic organisation are not altered by severely disrupting the integrity of the receptor array. Since the tuning of the individual receptors is not dependent on resonance in the auditory canal (prothoracic trachea), tympanal membranes or receptor array it is proposed that it is due to mechanical and/or electrical properties of the individual receptors.