The structure of sensors on the antennae of Oeceticus omnivorus (Lepidoptera: Psychidae)

The antennae of male bagworm moths were examined with the scanning electron microscope. More than 90% of the sensilla present are long, thin trichodea regularly arrayed along the anterior face of each pectination and presumably involved in locating females. Two shorter types of trichodea occur mostly along the anterior ridge of each pectination. At the tip of each pectination is a single chaeticum; a small number or similar chaetica are dispersed on the posterior, almost sensor‐free surface of each pectination. Sensors resembling both the styloconica and coeloconica of Noctuidae are present, mostly near the tip of each pectination. A single short, blunt peg set in an unusual bulbous base is closely associated with the chaeticum at the tip of each pectination.

Notes

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