Activity of the claw retractor muscle in stick insects in wall and ceiling situations

Bußhardt, Philipp; Gorb, Stanislav N.; Wolf, Harald

doi:10.1242/jeb.051953

Cited by 24 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…The smooth attachment devices of leaf beetle larvae resemble the arolia found in other insect groups, such as cicadas [1,48], stick insects [9,49] and locusts [50], and similarly, they all rely on an adhesion-mediating fluid. In some situations, hairy pads can attach more strongly than smooth pads because splitting the contact area into many small contacts increases the total perimeter of the solid -fluid -air interface, which in turn may increase adhesion force [51].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Locomotion and attachment of leaf beetle larvaeGastrophysa viridula(Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae)

2015

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While adult green dock leaf beetles Gastrophysa viridula use tarsal adhesive setae to attach to and walk on smooth vertical surfaces and ceilings, larvae apply different devices for similar purposes: pretarsal adhesive pads on thoracic legs and a retractable pygopod at the 10th abdominal segment. Both are soft smooth structures and capable of wet adhesion. We studied attachment ability of different larval instars, considering the relationship between body weight and real contact area between attachment devices and the substrate. Larval gait patterns were analysed using high-speed video recordings. Instead of the tripod gait of adults, larvae walked by swinging contralateral legs simultaneously while adhering by the pygopod. Attachment ability of larval instars was measured by centrifugation on a spinning drum, revealing that attachment force decreases relative to weight. Contributions of different attachment devices to total attachment ability were investigated by selective disabling of organs by covering them with melted wax. Despite their smaller overall contact area, tarsal pads contributed to a larger extent to total attachment ability, probably because of their distributed spacing. Furthermore, we observed different behaviour in adults and larvae when centrifuged: while adults gradually slipped outward on the centrifuge drum surface, larvae stayed at the initial position until sudden detachment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Locomotion and attachment of leaf beetle larvaeGastrophysa viridula(Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae)

2015

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“…in Carausius and Medauroidea (Bußhardt et al, 2012). Despite the structural differences, the motor control of at least two leg joints is very similar in both of these species, for example, the muscle structure and activity of the femur-tibia joint control loop (Bässler et al, 1996) or the retractor unguis that moves the tibia-tarsus joint (Bußhardt et al, 2011). The strongest difference between the three species concerns the proportions of the antennae and legs, because Medauroidea has much shorter antennae and longer legs than the other two species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative whole-body kinematics of closely related insect species with different body morphology

Theunissen

Bekemeier

Dürr

2014

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Legged locomotion through natural environments is very complex and variable. For example, leg kinematics may differ strongly between species, but even within the same species it is adaptive and context-dependent. Inter-species differences in locomotion are often difficult to interpret, because both morphological and ecological differences among species may be strong and, as a consequence, confound each other's effects. In order to understand better how body morphology affects legged locomotion, we compare unrestrained whole-body kinematics of three stick insect species with different body proportions, but similar feeding ecology: Carausius morosus, Aretaon asperrimus and Medauroidea extradentata (=Cuniculina impigra). In order to co-vary locomotory context, we introduced a gradually increasing demand for climbing by varying the height of stairs in the setup. The species were similar in many aspects, for example in using distinct classes of steps, with minor differences concerning the spread of corrective short steps. Major differences were related to antenna length, segment lengths of thorax and head, and the ratio of leg length to body length. Whereas all species continuously moved their antennae, only Medauroidea executed high swing movements with its front legs to search for obstacles in the near-range environment. Although all species adjusted their body inclination, the range in which body segments moved differed considerably, with longer thorax segments tending to be moved more. Finally, leg posture, time courses of leg joint angles and intra-leg coordination differed most strongly in long-legged Medauroidea.

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“…However, shear forces can only be applied by an animal if an antagonistic shear force is generated elsewhere at the same time . In stick insects, high muscle activity is observed when the position of the animal is altered from the horizontal to being upside down (Busshardt et al, 2011). This indicates that muscular forces have to be continuously applied, at least until the position is static.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The whole is more than the sum of all its parts: collective effect of spider attachment organs

Wohlfart

Wolff

Arzt

et al. 2014

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Dynamic attachment is the key to moving safely and fast in a threedimensional environment. Among lizards, hexapods and arachnids, several lineages have evolved hairy foot pads that can generate strong friction and adhesion on both smooth and rough surfaces. A strongly expressed directionality of attachment structures results in an anisotropy of frictional properties, which might be crucial for attachment control. In a natural situation, more than one leg is usually in contact with the substrate. In order to understand the collective effect of hairy foot pads in the hunting spider Cupiennius salei (Arachnida, Ctenidae), we performed vertical pulling experiments combined with stepwise disabling of the pads. We found the attachment force of the spider to be not simply the sum of single leg forces because with leg pair deactivation a much greater decrease in attachment forces was found than was predicted by just the loss of available adhesive pad area. This indicates that overall adhesion ability of the spider is strongly dependent on the antagonistic work of opposing legs, and the apparent contact area plays only a minor role. It is concluded that the coordinated action of the legs is crucial for adhesion control and for fast and easy detachment. The cumulative effect of anisotropic fibrillar adhesive structures could be potentially interesting for biomimetic applications, such as novel gripping devices.

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Activity of the claw retractor muscle in stick insects in wall and ceiling situations

Cited by 24 publications

References 67 publications

Locomotion and attachment of leaf beetle larvaeGastrophysa viridula(Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae)

Locomotion and attachment of leaf beetle larvaeGastrophysa viridula(Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae)

Comparative whole-body kinematics of closely related insect species with different body morphology

The whole is more than the sum of all its parts: collective effect of spider attachment organs

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