Miniature electrical oscillation of insect muscle which had been found by Wakabayashi and Hagiwara was investigated phylogenetically. As materials the thoracic muscle of Odonata, Neuroptera, Orthoptera, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Diptera and the tymbal muscle of Hemiptera were used.2. Miniature electrical oscillation was obtained in the thoracic muscles of Diptera and Hymenoptera and the tymbal muscle of Hemiptera, but not in Odonata, Neuroptera, Orthoptera, Lepidoptera and Coleoptera.3. Similar oscillation was observed with extra-and intracellular electrodes. Most probably the oscillation is not injury discharge and is myogenic in nature.4. The oscillation is obtained in the rapid muscle of insects of higher order, so it can possibly be supposed to appear with the phylogenetic progress of the insect.5. The correlations of the appearance of the oscillation to the development of exoskeleton, the type of contraction, the rapidity of contraction and the myogenic determin ation of contraction were also indicated. It is the fact of taxonomic significance.
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Wakabayashi et al. (1957) studied this question.