Oscillation of cricket sensory hairs in a low-frequency sound field

Summary

• 1. Filiform hairs of various lengths on the cerci of adult crickets vibrate in a sound field. These movements were measured with a photodetector for sound frequencies from 10 Hz to 200 Hz in the species Acheta domestica, Gryllus bimaculatus and Phaeophilacris spectrum.

• 2. With low air-particle velocities, the hair shafts were deflected sinusoidally from their resting position, without bending or secondary oscillations (Figs. 2 A, 3 A). At higher velocities (from ca. 80 mm/s peak velocity, depending on the properties of the individual hairs), the shaft struck the cuticular rim of the socket in which the base of the hair is seated (Fig. 2B). This contact was made at an average angular displacement from the resting position of 5.16°±1.0°.

• 3. The best frequencies of the hairs were found to be between 40 Hz and 100 Hz (Fig. 5A). The slope of the amplitude curve for constant peak air-particle velocity at frequencies below the best frequencies was between 0 and 6 dB/octave. Long hairs had smaller slope values than short hairs (Fig. 5C).

• 4. At its best frequency the ratio of maximal tip displacement of a hair to the displacement of the air particles in the sound field was between 0.2 and 2. Only a small number of hairs (2 out of 36) showed tip displacements exceeding twice the air-particle displacement. The values of maximal angular displacement were not correlated to hair length (Fig. 5 B).

• 5. The angular displacement of the hairs was phase shifted with respect to the air-particle velocity by 0° to +45° (phase lead) at sound frequencies around 10 Hz and by -45° to -120° (phase lag) at 200 Hz (Figs. 3C, 4B). At a particular frequency long hairs tended to have larger phase lags than shorter hairs (Fig. 5D).