Subject: Tymbal buckling in various species, help!

From: Scott Jacoves <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 14:25:34 -0600

Hello. I'm a graduate student at the University of Toronto, studying
the neual substrate for an acoustic startle response in the Noctid moth
_Cycina tenera_. Basicly, the moth has an "ear" that is sensitive to bat
echolocation calls, and responds in two ways to these calls. It will
either try to avoid the bat (by flying away from the signal source or
flying even more erratically than it normally does), or at close ranges,
it buckles a specialized portion of its cuticle, called the tymbal. This
buckling generates pulses of high frequency sound whic most people think
jams bat echolocation.
	As mentioned, I'm looking at the neurons and their activity that
underly all this behaviour. My major problem is that _tenera_ is just
too bloody small to work with, about 1.8 cm stem to stern, and skinny. I
want to do multicell intracellular recording, and the moth just isn't
big enough for that.

	I was wondering if anyone knew of any other insect, moth or other
hexapod, that has similar behaviour. Preferably a bigger one too,
although I'm also comparing the neural pathways across species so _any_
instance of this behaviour is welcome. The clicking, and you can hear it
as a faint "frying" sound, can be evoked either by sound around 30 kHz
(key jingling does this) or by tactile stimulation.

	Thanks for your help!

	Scott Jacoves
	905 828 3845
	Zoology
	Univeristy of Toronto
	Mississauga, Toronto
	L5L 1C6

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From: [email-masked] (Andrew Mitchell)
Date: 2 Dec 1996 08:35:24 -0500

The moth's name is _Cycnia tenera_ not _Cyncia tenera_ and is an arctiid
not a noctuid.  Tymbals are characteristic of Arctiidae.  This should give
you some indication of where to look for other species that show this
behavior.

*******************************************************************************
Andrew Mitchell
Department of Entomology            E-MAIL: [email-masked]
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
U.S.A.
*******************************************************************************

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From: Charles Fisher <[email-masked]>
Date: 5 Dec 1996 18:15:04 GMT

I thought Arctids were a subfamily of Noctuidae, maybe things have 
changed since I took entomology.  There are several species of Arctidids 
that have tymbal structures.

C. Fisher
[email-masked]