Differential effects of ambient temperature on warm cell responses to infrared radiation in the bloodsucking bug Rhodnius prolixus

Thermoreceptors provide animals with background information about the thermal environment, which is at least indirectly a prerequisite for thermoregulation and assists bloodsucking insects in the search for their host. Recordings from peg-in-pit sensilla and tapered hairs on the antennae of the bug Rhodnius prolixus revealed two physiologically different types of warm cells. Both types responded more strongly to temperature pulses produced by switching between two air streams at different constant temperatures than to infrared radiation pulses employed in still air. In addition, both warm cells were better able to discriminate small changes in air temperature than in infrared radiation. As convective and radiant heat determines the discharge, it is impossible for a single warm cell to signal the nature of the stimulus unequivocally. Individual responses are ambiguous, not with regard to temperature change, but with regard to its source. We argue that the bugs use mechanical flow information to differentiate between pulses of convective and radiant heat. However, if pulses of radiant heat occur together with a constant temperature air stream, the mechanical cues would not allow avoiding ambiguity that convective heat introduces into radiant heat stimulation. In this situation, the warm cell in the tapered hairs produced stronger responses than those in the peg-in-pit sensilla. The reversal in the excitability of the two types of warm cells provides a criterion by which to distinguish the combination of convective and radiant heat from the stimuli presented alone.