[Functional features of the locomotor muscles of the locust]

The ultrastructure of muscle fibres, membrane electrical constants and synaptic membrane responses to microapplication of l-glutamate were investigated in longitudinal flight muscle and flexor tibia of Locusta migratoria migratorioides. The sarcomers of the flight muscle (fast) were smaller then those of the leg muscle (slow). The effective resistances (Ro) of the flight and leg muscles were (2.25 +/- 0.54)-10(5) omega and (1.65 +/- 0.57) X 10(5) omega. The specific resistance (Rm), space constant (tau) and time constant (lambda) in the same muscles were 774 +/- 106 omega-cm and 2583 +/- 119 omega-cm-2; 7.3 +/- 1.7 ms and 17.5 +/- 1.1 ms; 093 +/- 0.22 mm and 1.98 +/- 0.42 mm. When l-glutamate was applied iontophoretically to muscle fibres depolarization was recorded only in localized parts of the membrane. Microapplication of acetylcholine to intact and denervated muscle fibres of the slow leg muscle was uneffective. It is suggested that l-glutamic acid is the excitatory transmitter both in slow and fast insect muscles.