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For mating, leafhoppers (Cicadellidae) use substrate-borne vibrational signals to communicate. We provide the first complete description of the abdominal chordotonal organs that enable the perception of these signals. This supplementary data provides the aligned stack of 450 semithin serial sections of the first and second abdominal segment of an adult male Rhododendron leafhopper (Graphocephala fennahi). Further, this supplementary data comprises the segmentation files of five chordotonal organs, the exoskeleton, the segmental nerves and the spiracles of the first and the second abdominal segment. Due to time limitations, the structures of only one half of the body were segmented. The specimen was caught by hand net in September 2018 in Berlin-Tiergarten, Germany. Samples were embedded in Araldite® 502 resin and cut transversally in 1 μm thick sections using a Leica ultramicrotome and a DIATOME Histo Jumbo 6.0 mm diamond knife. Sections were placed on microscopic slides and stained with methylene blue/azur II. The images were taken by means of a 3DHISTECH PANNORAMIC SCAN II slide scanner in the Institute of Pathology Charité in Berlin-Mitte, Germany. Images with a voxel size of 0.273809 μm x 0.273809 μm x 1 μm where obtained. The images were converted from MRXS-files to TIFF-files with the 3DHistech software Slide Converter 2.3. Using Photoshop, the images were cropped to the same canvas size and artefacts were removed. All further steps, such as alignment and segmentation, were done with the software Amira. In order to facilitate the further processing of the dataset, the voxels where resampled to a size of 0.547619 μm x 0.547619 μm x 1 μm.
The Hemiptera is the largest non-endopterygote insect order comprising approximately 98,000 recent species. All species of the suborders Cicadomorpha (leafhoppers, spittlebugs, treehoppers and cicadas) and Fulgoromorpha (planthoppers) feed by sucking sap from plant tissues and are thus often vectors for economically important phytopathogens. Except for the cicadas (Cicadomorpha: Cicadoidea: Cicadidae) which produce air-borne sounds, all species of the suborders Cicadomorpha and Fulgoromorpha communicate by vibrational (substrate-borne) signals. While the generation of these signals has been extensively investigated, the mechanisms of perception are poorly understood. This study provides a full description and 3D reconstruction of a large and complex array of six paired chordotonal organs in the first abdominal segments of the Rhododendron leafhopper Graphocephala fennahi (Cicadomorpha: Membracoidea: Cicadellidae). Further we were able to identify homologous organs in the closely related spittlebug Philaenus spumarius (Cicadomorpha: Cercopoidea: Aphrophoridae) and the planthopper Issus coleoptratus (Fulgoromorpha: Fulgoroidea: Issidae). The configuration is congruent with the abdominal chordotonal organs in cicadas, where one of them is an elaborate tympanal organ. This indicates that these organs, together with the tymbal organ constitute a synapomorphy of the Tymbalia (Hemiptera excl. Sternorrhyncha). Our results contribute to the understanding of the evolution from substrate-borne to airborne communication in insects.