EAPSI:Investigating an Unknown Sensory Structure in Eastern Leaf-dwelling Praying Mantises

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The role sensory systems play in mediating an organism?s environment is critical to developing our understanding of how information is perceived and processed. A potentially new sensory organ, the furcasternal tubercle, was discovered within a family of leaf-dwelling praying mantises (Mantodea, Iridopterygidae) that reside on the undersides of broad-leaf vegetation, a unique ecological niche within Mantodea. This research seeks to uncover the environmental information that the sensory organ encode. The work will be conducted in collaboration with Drs. Marie Herberstein and Kate Barry, prominent researchers in ethology and ecology, at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. The characterization of a novel sensory organ will provide further insights into neural systems as they relate to ecological niche specialization.Preliminary investigations of the furcasternal tubercle revealed that it is surfaced with a variable number of articulating surface hairs, suggesting a mechanosensory function, and histological sectioning uncovered the presence of neural tissue within the structure. Behavioral and neurophysiological assays will be conducted to determine what behaviors the furcasternal tubercle modulates; extracellular recordings from the neural tissues within the structure will conclusively demonstrate the neural activity generated when the structure is stimulated. This research seeks to uncover the furcasternal tubercle?s physiological role within the context of the group?s unique habitat use. This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Australian Academy of Science.