Well i spoke to a lot of people...including a few teachers, and they said that it wasn't neccesarily asking for an experiment, but rather how you could use both SECONDARY and PRIMARY (experminetal) sources for the design.
Secondary sources are vital in looking at COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. ie. comparing the insects structual form against similar insects.
Secondary sources are also important in observing existing Tympanic structures on other similar species (i.e Grasshoppers) to observe characteristics, and function.
Secondary sources can also be used to determine the frequencies at which similar species respond to. ie. 20,000 Hz etc etc
Thus in a primary, first-hand investigation we can utilise these.
Observations under microscope to observe comparative anatomy...diagrams, observations recorded .. etc etc all that jazz
Then you can also expose the insect to various frequencies to determine if the tympanic membrane operates in a similar way to other species.
The question is all about comparing with other similar species...im sure there are a million and one ways of writing about it....the markers will do their best to give you marks!
Hope that helped!