Mechanoreception

Insects receive and respond to a wide variety of mechanical stimuli. They are sensitive to physical contact with solid surfaces (touching and being touched); they detect air movements, including sound waves; and they have gravitational sense, that is, through particular mechanosensilla they gain information about their body position in relation to gravity. This is especially important in flying or swimming insects which are in a homogeneous medium; they receive information about their body posture and the relationship of different body components to each other, and they obtain information on physical events occurring within the body, for example, the extension of muscles in movement, the filling of the gut by food, and the stretching of the oviduct when mature eggs are present