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Revision as of 10:13, 3 March 2006
For other uses, see Antenna.
Antennae (singular antenna) are paired appendages connected to the front-most segments of arthropods. In crustaceans, they are biramous and present on the first two segments of the head, with the smaller pair known as antennules. All other arthropod groups, except chelicerates and proturans which have none, have a single, uniramous pair of antennae.
Antennae are jointed, and generally extend forward from the head. They are sensory organs, although the exact nature of what they sense and how they sense it is not always clear. It appears that their function may include sensing touch, air motion, heat, vibration (sound), and olfaction (smell or taste).
In insects, olfactory receptors on the antennae bind to odour molecules, including pheromones. The neurones that possess these receptors signal this binding by sending action potentials down their axons to the antennal lobe in the brain. From there, neurons in the antennal lobes connect to mushroom bodies that identify the odour.
The three basic segments of insect antennae are the scape (base), the pedicel (stem), and finally the flagellum, which comprises many units known as flagellomeres.
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