New Insights on Antennal Sensilla of Anastrepha ludens (Diptera: Tephritidae) Using Advanced Microscopy Techniques

Abstract

Using light, transmission, scanning electron, and confocal microscopy, we carried out a morphological study of antennal sensilla and their ultrastructures of the Mexican Fruit Fly Anastrepha ludens (Loew), an economically important species that is a pest of mangos and citrus in Mexico and Central America. Our goal was to update the known information on the various sensilla in the antennae of A. ludens, involved in the perception of odors, temperature, humidity, and movement. Based on their external shape, size, cuticle-thickness, and presence of pores, we identified six types of sensilla with 16 subtypes (one chaetica in the pedicel, four clavate, two trichoid, four basiconic, one styloconic, and one campaniform-like in the flagellum, and three additional ones in the two chambers of the sensory pit (pit-basiconic I and II, and pit-styloconic)), some of them described for the first time in A. ludens. We also report, for the first time, two types of pores in the sensilla (hourglass and wedge shapes) that helped classify the sensilla. Additionally, we report a campaniform-like sensillum only observed by transmission electronic microscopy on the flagellum, styloconic and basiconic variants inside the sensory pit, and an “hourglass-shaped” pore in six sensilla types. We discuss and suggest the possible function of each sensillum according to their characteristics and unify previously used criteria in the only previous study on the topic.