Evolution of insect abdominal appendages: are prolegs homologous or convergent traits?

Suzuki, Yuichiro; Palopoli, Michael F.

doi:10.1007/s00427-001-0182-3

Cited by 49 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…From lepidopteron homeotic gene studies (Suzuki and Palopoli, 2001;Warren et al, 1994), comparative anatomy (Hinton, 1955) and Xray induced mutation (M. A. Simon, personal communication), we know that caterpillars are capable of generating prolegs in any abdominal segments. It is therefore interesting that some caterpillars share the same body plans whereas others differ so much.…”

Section: Implications On Caterpillar Prolegs Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The substrate as a skeleton: ground reaction forces from a soft-bodied legged animal

Lin

Trimmer

2010

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARY The measurement of forces generated during locomotion is essential for the development of accurate mechanical models of animal movements. However, animals that lack a stiff skeleton tend to dissipate locomotor forces in large tissue deformation and most have complex or poorly defined substrate contacts. Under these conditions, measuring propulsive and supportive forces is very difficult. One group that is an exception to this problem is lepidopteran larvae which, despite lacking a rigid skeleton, have well-developed limbs (the prolegs) that can be used for climbing in complex branched structures and on a variety of surfaces. Caterpillars therefore are excellent for examining the relationship between soft body deformation and substrate reaction forces during locomotion. In this study, we devised a method to measure the ground reaction forces (GRFs) at multiple contact points during crawling by the tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta). Most abdominal prolegs bear similar body weight during their stance phase. Interestingly, forward reaction forces did not come from pushing off the substrate. Instead, most positive reaction forces came from anterior abdominal prolegs loaded in tension while posterior legs produced drag in most instances. The counteracting GRFs effectively stretch the animal axially during the second stage of a crawl cycle. These findings help in understanding how a terrestrial soft-bodied animal can interact with its substrate to control deformation without hydraulic actuation. The results also provide insights into the behavioral and mechanistic constraints leading to the evolution of diverse proleg arrangements in different species of caterpillar.

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Section: Implications On Caterpillar Prolegs Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The substrate as a skeleton: ground reaction forces from a soft-bodied legged animal

Lin

Trimmer

2010

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…Unlike the thoracic legs, the prolegs are not obviously segmented. However, early anatomical studies (Snodgrass, 1952) and recent results in molecular development (Suzuki and Palopoli, 2001) suggest that each proleg contains distinct proximal to distal divisions. The most basal region where the proleg joins the ventral body wall will be referred to as the subcoxa (Fig.·1B).…”

Section: Anatomy Of the Prolegmentioning

confidence: 99%

The biomechanical and neural control of hydrostatic limb movements in Manduca sexta

Mezoff

Papastathis

Takesian

et al. 2004

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARY Caterpillars are ecologically successful soft-bodied climbers. They are able to grip tightly to foliage using cuticular hooks at the tips of specialized abdominal limbs called prolegs. The neural control of proleg retraction has been examined in some detail but little is known about how prolegs extend and adduct. This is of particular interest because there are no extensor muscles or any obvious mechanisms for directing hydraulic flow into the proleg. In restrained tobacco hornworms (Manduca sexta),adduction can be evoked by stimulating mechanosensory hairs on the medial surface of the proleg. 3-D kinematics show that extension and adduction occur simultaneously through an unfolding of membrane between the pseudo segments. Hemolymph pressure pulses are not necessary to extend the proleg; instead, the pressure at the base of the proleg decreases before adduction and increases before retraction. It is proposed that these pressure changes are caused by muscles that stiffen and relax the body wall during cycles of retraction and adduction. Electromyographic recordings show that relaxation of the principal planta retractor muscle is essential for normal adduction. Extracellular nerve and muscle recordings in reduced preparations show that medial hair stimulation of one proleg can strongly and bilaterally excite motoneurons controlling the ventral internal lateral muscles of all the proleg-bearing segments. Ablation, nerve section and electromyographic experiments show that this muscle is not essential for adduction in restrained larvae but that it is coactive with the retractors and may be responsible for stiffening the body wall during proleg movements.

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“…During contact with the substrate, a white-yellowish mass of irregular shape comes out of the abdominal segment, which adapts well to the irregularities of the substrate and forms intimate contact, supporting attachment and locomotion [23]. Abdominal pads are called anal prolegs, postpedes or pygopods [21,22,25 -27] and can be also found in larvae of insect orders other than Coleoptera, such as Lepidoptera [27][28][29][30][31][32], Diptera (only Chironomidae) [27,33,34], Hymenoptera [32], also Mecoptera, Neuroptera and Raphidioptera [35]. In freely, terrestrially living beetle larvae, the involvement of the abdominal terminal as 'locomotory supporting organ' seems to occur generally [35].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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Evolution of insect abdominal appendages: are prolegs homologous or convergent traits?

Cited by 49 publications

References 28 publications

The substrate as a skeleton: ground reaction forces from a soft-bodied legged animal

The substrate as a skeleton: ground reaction forces from a soft-bodied legged animal

The biomechanical and neural control of hydrostatic limb movements in Manduca sexta

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

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