An organ for hearing and vibration sense in the ghost crab Ocypode Article

Horch, K. (1971). An organ for hearing and vibration sense in the ghost crab Ocypode . Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 73(1), 1-21. 10.1007/BF00297698

cited authors

  • Horch, K

abstract

  • 1. The sensory basis of sound and vibration perception has been studied neurophysiologically in the ghost crab Ocypode. Experiments were carried out both on neural responses from the brains of intact animals and on nerve responses recorded from isolated walking legs. 2. Hearing curves for two species of Ocypode from about 800 Hz to 3000 Hz showed maximum sensitivities in the 1-2 kHz band. 3. The substratum vibration sensitivity curve for Ocypode ceratophthalmus extended to 5000 Hz. 4. Synchrony between the response and the stimulus was seen for low frequency vibrations up to 600-800 Hz. 5. Sensitivity to high frequency vibrations and sounds was localized in Barth's myochordotonal organ in the merus of each walking leg. 6. This system could be used for conspecific call detection, and may provide sufficient information to the animals for orientation to acoustically signalling individuals. © 1971 Springer-Verlag.

authors

publication date

  • March 1, 1971

published in

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 1

end page

  • 21

volume

  • 73

issue

  • 1