Excitation of the abdominal ganglion affects the electrophysiological activity of indirect flight muscles of the honeybee Apis mellifera

Our understanding of the nervous tissues that affect the wing flapping of insects mainly focuses on the brain,but wing flapping is a rhythmic movement related to the central pattern generator in the ventral nerve cord.To verify whether the neural activity of the abdominal ganglion of the honeybee(Apis mellifera)affects the flapping-wing flight,we profiled the response characteristics of indirect flight muscles to abdominal ganglion excitation.Strikingly,a change in the neural activity of ganglion 3 or ganglion 4 has a stronger effect on the electrophysiological activity of indirect flight muscles than that of ganglion 5.The electrophysiological activity of vertical indirect flight muscles is affected more by the change in neural activity of the abdominal ganglion than that of lateral indirect flight muscles.Moreover,the change in neural activity of the abdominal ganglion mainly causes the change in the muscular activity of indirect wing muscles,but the activity patterns change relatively little and there is little change in the complicated details.This work improves our understanding of the neuroregulatory mechanisms associated with the flapping-wing flight of honeybees.

Biochemical, molecular, and morphological variations of flight muscles before and after dispersal flight in a eusocial termite, Reticulitermes chinensis

Swarming behavior facilitates pair formation,and therefore mating,in many eusocial termites.However,the physiological adjustments and morphological transformations of the flight muscles involved in flying and flightless insect forms are still unclear.Here,we found that the dispersal flight of the eusocial termite Reticulitermes chinensis Snyder led to a gradual decrease in adenosine triphosphate supply from oxidative phospho・rylation,as well as a reduction in the activities of critical mitochondrial respiratory enzymes from preflight to dealation.Correspondingly,using three-dimensional reconstruction and transmission electron microscopy(TEM),the flight muscles were found to be gradually deteriorated during this process.In particular,two tergo-pleural muscles(IItpm5 and IIItpm5)necessary to adjust the rotation of wings for wing shedding behavior were present only in flying alates.These findings suggest that flight muscle systems vary in function and morphology to facilitate the swarming flight procedure,which sheds light on the important role of swarming in successful extension and fecundity of eusocial termites.

Biased dispersal of Metrioptera bicolor, a wing dimorphic bush-cricket

In the highly fragmented landscape of central Europe, dispersal is of particular importance as it determines the long-term survival of animal populations. Dispersal not only secures the recolonization of patches where populations went extinct, it may also rescue small populations and thus prevent local extinction events. As dispersal involves different individual fitness costs, the decision to disperse should not be random but context- dependent and often will be biased toward a certain group of individuals （e.g., sex- and wing morph-biased dispersal）. Although biased dispersal has far-reaching consequences for animal populations, immediate studies of sex- and wing morph-biased dispersal in orthopterans are very rare. Here, we used a combined approach of morphological and genetic analyses to investigate biased dispersal of Metrioptera bicolor, a wing dimorphic bush-cricket. Our results clearly show wing morph-biased dispersal for both sexes of M. bicolor. In addition, we found sex-biased dispersal for macropterous individuals, but not for micropters. Both, morphological and genetic data, favor macropterous males as dispersal unit of this bush-cricket species. To get an idea of the flight ability ofM. bicolor, we compared our morphological data with that of Locusta migratoria and Schistocerca gregaria, which are very good flyers. Based on our morphological data, we suggest a good flight ability for macropters of M. bicolor, although flying individuals of this species are seldom observed.