The scent glands of the male south american locust Schistocerca cancellata, an electron microscope study.
The male South American locust, Schistocerca cancellata, emits a strong aromatic scent at the time of maturation. This aroma is characteristic of mature adult males living in crowded conditions. In isolated males and in females it is perceptible but faint, while nymphs emit no scent at all. Since dermal glands are numerous in the mature adult but much rarer in nymphs, young imagos and females, it seems likely that the scent is associated with these glands. The scent seems to be a maturation-pheromone, stored and released by these dermal glands. Each gland consists of a gland cell and a duct cell (type 3 gland in the classification of Noirot and Quennedey, (1974)). Each gland cell has a single end-apparatus consisting of an oblong cavity limited by the projecting tips of densely packed microvilli. A duct, dilated to form three successive bulbosities at its distal end, opens in the cavity from which it conveys the secretion to the outside. A network of fibrillar material anchors the duct to the cavity. Reproductive synchrony, beneficial in social insects, seems to be achieved in locusts by the aromatic pheromone released by the glands at the time of maturation.
Hawkes
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Laboratoire d'Optique Electronique du C.N.R.S., associé à l'Université Paul Sabatier, 29 rue Jeanne Marvig, 31400 Toulouse, France.
Rzepka
J
J
Gontrand
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