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Ultrastructure and physiology of the hooded sensillum, a bimodal chemo‐mechanosensillum of lobsters

The antennules of decapod crustaceans are covered with thousands of chemosensilla that mediate odor discrimination and orientation behaviors. Most studies on chemoreception in decapods have focused on the prominent aesthetasc sensilla. However, previous behavioral studies on lobsters following selective sensillar ablation have revealed that input from nonaesthetasc antennular chemosensilla is sufficient for many odor‐mediated behaviors. Our earlier examination of the setal types on the antennules of the Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus revealed three types of nonaesthetasc chemosensilla. The most abundant and widely distributed of these is the hooded sensillum. The present study describes the detailed ultrastructure of antennular hooded sensilla and the physiological response properties of their receptor neurons. Light and scanning and transmission electron microscopy were used to examine structural characteristics, and electrophysiology was used to examine single‐unit responses elicited by focal chemical and mechanical stimulation of antennular hooded sensilla. Hooded sensilla have a porous cuticle and are innervated by 9–10 chemosensory and 3 mechanosensory neurons whose dendrites project to the distal end of the sensillum. Hooded sensillar chemosensory neurons responded to waterborne chemicals, were responsive to only one of the six tested single compounds, and had different specificities. Hooded sensillar mechanosensory neurons were not spontaneously active. They had low sensitivity in that they responded to tactile but not waterborne vibrations, and they responded to sensillar deflection with phasic bursts of activity. These results support the idea that hooded sensilla are bimodal chemo‐mechanosensilla and are receptors in an antennular chemosensory pathway that parallels the well‐described aesthetasc chemosensory pathway. J. Comp. Neurol. 442:293–307, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.