Talk:Antenna (biology)

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Antenna (biology)/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

Needs:

headers to divide the article up into appropriate sections ("structure", "types", etc.);
less complex information for non-specialists; in its present state it isn't very accessible to most people;
more information about the antennal types of different taxa;
explanation on the different types of antennae (filliform, pectinate, etc.). IronC hris (talk) 17:22, 18 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Last edited at 17:22, 18 November 2006 (UTC). Substituted at 21:02, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

Nautilus antenna

Jefflayman (talk) 14:29, 28 December 2007 (UTC)This article says, "In most adults, the antenna are sensory organs, but they are used by the nauplius larva for both feeding and swimming." However, the Nauplius page says, "Nauplii larvae do not feed, but utilize their internal yolk reserves from the egg for energy." Will someone who knows the answer please clarify? Thanks.[reply]

Tactile information

Somatosensory system doesn't seem to include relevant information for invertebrates. The link to Sensory system is also likely to cause confusion. I already asked there to allow for non-human links. If a knowledgeable person comes across this could they kindly either create new relevant pages for those links or add something on the linked pages that makes it clear what information this refers to. (Please allow for the fact that someone who reads this article and follows the links is usually unfamiliar with the subject and won't know what to look for.) Thanks. (Lisa4edit)--76.97.245.5 (talk) 17:49, 9 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Cellular antennae

I have articulated an initial stub of a new section on the use of the term antennae for cellular-level antennae in cilia, with citation. For now, this would seem to clearly fit into a Wikipedia article on the use of the term antenna within the biological sciences (thus, the current article title: Antenna (biology)). If others think this usage should fit elsewhere, please discuss, or go for it. N2e (talk) 18:29, 19 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I know I'm responding 4 years later, but am just curious as to whether "cellular antennae" is used in a figurative, descriptive tone (even among scientists) or in a formal, scientific tone. The most recent of the two citations states: "all cilia can now be viewed as sensory cellular antennae" (emphasis added), which leads me to believe it's more of a loosely-defined "how you look at it" definition, which might arguably include the narwhal's tusk or other outgrowths with a sensory function. Similarly, the Science article only uses the phrase in the abstract and title in a figurative way. Simply because something is called something doesn't necessarily warrant its inclusion in an article: rainforests have been called the "Earth's lungs" but their discussion would be out of place in an article about lungs. --Animalparty-- (talk) 20:43, 18 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

That's a good question. Here is a search of the literature that provides a number of more recent scientific articles that are using the cellular antenna locution: Google Scholar search of 'cilium antennae'. Looks like there are several papers on the function of these organelles, especially in humans. Although I have not read the paper yet, I was fascinated to see that these biological structures may even have a tie in to some types of adiposity/obesity (no paywall). Cheers. N2e (talk) 14:35, 14 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

After reading this article, I agree with Animalparty's initial reaction. Although the term "cellular antennae" has been picked up by those doing research on cillia, the content doesn't fit with this article. I've merged the Cellular antennae section with Cilium#Sensing the extracellular environment. The section here was largely redundant with information on that page. I've changed the "Cellular antenna" redirect to go there, and added "Cellular antenna" to the "Antenna" disambiguation page. M. A. Broussard (talk) 07:54, 28 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Muscles and Johnston's organ

There is data missing regarding the muscles connect to the antenna and Johnston's organ on the second segment in insects. 141.35.8.36 (talk) 13:34, 3 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Move from "Antenna (biology)" to "Arthropod antenna" or similar

To avoid overlap with unrelated topics, such as cellular antennae, I strongly recommend changing this page's name. It was moved to "Antenna (arthropod anatomy)" in 2011, and moved back immediately for the cleaner, shorter (but vague) "Antenna (biology)". I think the time has come where some additional precision is needed. Feedback? M. A. Broussard (talk) 07:59, 28 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

There might be a case if we had an article on any other biological antenna, but at the moment, this is the only one. As far as I can see, the term "cellular antennae" is used far, far less frequently than the term for the arthropod sensory appendage. (Indeed, I struggled to find any mention of "cellular antennae" to mean cilia, rather than masts for mobile telephony; I might even suggest that "cellular antennae" is a description of cilia, rather than a defined term in its own right.) On that basis alone, the current situation would seem to be the best arrangement. --Stemonitis (talk) 12:37, 28 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I would support remaining with the status quo. There are several hundred articles that link to Antenna (biology), and these would become double redirects if the proposed change was made. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 12:41, 28 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I also don't see anything that would reasonably lead to confusion that would warrant a move. If such a time came that we had non-arthropod antennae being written about, we'd just simply expand this article and split it if need be. I don't see any reason to specify arthropod over just biology right now though. Kingofaces43 (talk) 15:42, 28 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I support the status quo. Another possibility is Antenna (animal) but given Cwmhiraeth's comment above, this change would probably not be worth the effort. DrChrissy ^(talk) 16:56, 28 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Antennation

I found the term "antennation" at Pharaoh ant#Colony interaction. As I didn't know its precise meaning – and suspect others won't – I started to wikilink it. The link redirects to this page, "Antenna (biology)". But the word doesn't appear here, despite considerable explanation of antenna morphology and function in various insects. Neither does the insect anatomy§Antennae article section, which this page suggests has "more detail".

I suspect that "antennation" means something like "communication using antennae", but don't know whether:

antennae (aka "feelers") actually touch, giving tactile signals;
antennae give visual signals through position and movement;
antennae give and detect electromagnetic signals;
antennae emit and detect pheromones, giving and receiving scent signals;
antennae signal in some other way;
or more than one of the above.

Nor did this article help. Can anybody? yoyo (talk) 12:02, 23 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]