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Wings as Part of the Sensory System in the Aphid Subfamily Eriosomatinae s. lat. (Insecta, Hemiptera)
1
Institute of Biology, Biotechnology and Environmental Protection, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Silesia in Katowice, Bankowa 9, 40-007 Katowice, Poland
2
Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Insects 2025, 16(8), 828; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects16080828 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 8 July 2025
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Revised: 6 August 2025
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Accepted: 7 August 2025
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Published: 9 August 2025
(This article belongs to the Section Insect Ecology, Diversity and Conservation)
Simple Summary
Aphids are specialised feeders, requiring finding a proper host plant species to continue their life cycle. Special winged morphs, which were the subject of this study, perform flight in spring or autumn to continue their life cycle on different plants. Many sensory structures help them finding the required plant species, including sensory organs placed on wings, which help to detect the degree of deformation of wings during flight. Here, we used light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy to study these structures on forewings of aphids in the subfamily Eriosomatinae. It was revealed that aphids, which need to have longer flight due to rarity of the host plant they seek, have more specialised sensory structures, campaniform sensilla on their wings, than morphs searching for more abundant plants.
Abstract
Wings are a crucial evolutionary trait of insects and constitute an important part of their sensory system. Phloem-feeding aphids specialising in particular host plant species require an efficient sensory system and locomotive abilities to find an appropriate plant to complete the life cycle. Wings (in winged morphs) play a crucial role in this dispersal, but the sensory part of their structure is neglected. Here, we review campaniform sensilla, responsible for sensing the mechanical deformations of wings, in the aphid subfamily Eriosomatinae, where many species are host-alternating, which requires distant flights. Based on light and scanning electron microscopy, we illustrate sensilla and their arrangement on wings in 10 species. We also provide a broader sensory background by correlating their number with other important olfactory and campaniform sensilla of the antennae and legs. We find a strong relation of forewing sensilla with olfactory receptors on antennae, but their number is specific for particular morphs, depending on the required flight effort, led by the abundance of the host plant. Morphs migrating to less abundant host have 1.15 to 1.77 more campaniform sensilla per 1 mm of forewing length than morphs migrating to more abundant host. Aphids reveal a relatively high number of sensilla on the distal part of the forewings, showing their importance for effective sensing the deformation of wing.
Keywords:
control proprioception; dispersal; flight; sensilla; sensing
