Ultrastructure and function of scolopophorous sensilla in the mandible of an elaterid larva (Coleoptera)

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Abstract
The mandibles of larvae of Ctenicera destructor (Brown) have a large primary tooth with five, and a small medial tooth with one, scolopophorous sensilla of an amphinematic type. Each sensillum is innervated by two bipolar neurons, one with a large and the other a small distal dendrite. Both distal dendrites are held together by a tight junction within a dendritic canal that extends to near the surface of the cuticular wall of the teeth. This canal is enclosed by a dendritic and a cuticular sheath, is closed apically by a cuticular plug, and extends through the mandibular cuticle within a larger sensillar canal. The distal dendritic plasma membranes are attached to the dendritic sheath, and bundles of microtubules in the inner sheath cell interconnect the latter to the proximal dendrites and their ciliary rootlets through desmosomal junctions. An outer sheath cell envelops the inner sheath cell, and a neurilemma cell envelops the basal parts of the nerve cell bodies and the axons individually. These sensilla did not respond to chemical stimulation. Both nerve cells were stimulated by bending the mandibular tooth outward. One produced impulses with a higher amplitude and at a higher rate than the other. These sensilla are proprioceptive mechanoreceptors.

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