Tömösváry organs, also known as temporal organs or postantennal organs are specialized paired sensory organs found in certain groups of

myriapod Myriapods () are the members of subphylum Myriapoda, containing arthropods such as millipedes and centipedes. The group contains about 13,000 species, all of them terrestrial. The fossil record of myriapods reaches back into the late Silurian, a ...

s (e.g.

centipede Centipedes (from New Latin , "hundred", and Latin , " foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', lip, and New Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, an ...

s and

millipede Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name derived from this feature. Each double-legged segment is a resu ...

s) and hexapods (e.g.

springtail Springtails (Collembola) form the largest of the three lineages of modern hexapods that are no longer considered insects (the other two are the Protura and Diplura). Although the three orders are sometimes grouped together in a class called Ento ...

s), located on the head near the base of the antennae. They are notably absent among Polydesmid (flat-backed millipedes), the largest order of Diplopoda. Various functions for the Tömösváry organs have been proposed, including sensing vibration, humidity, or light, although evidence for their true function is conflicting, and in groups such as millipedes its true function is unknown. The organs were first described by Hungarian biologist

Ödön Tömösváry Ödön Tömösváry (''Edmund Tömösváry'', October 12, 1852 in Magyaró – August 15, 1884 in Déva) was Hungarian naturalist, myriapodologist and entomologist. In 1883 he made the seminal description of peculiar sensory organ of myriapods, ...

in 1883.

References

Myriapod anatomy Sensory organs in animals Springtail anatomy {{arthropod-anatomy-stub