Kinematics of horizontal and vertical caterpillar crawling

Griethuijsen, Linnea I. van; Trimmer, Barry A.

doi:10.1242/jeb.025783

Cited by 46 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…There are parallels in the functional morphology of smooth pads (pretarsal ones and pygopods) between beetle larvae and caterpillars. The latter may effectively climb and strongly grip applying the pygopod as anchor, serving the lateral stability [46]. Those effects result in limited crawling speed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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: 99%

“…Those effects result in limited crawling speed. Although they crawl up and down more slowly than horizontally, caterpillars perform extremely well on vertical surfaces because they maintain continuous contact with the substrate, and because of the strong 'grip' and lateral stability provided by their pygopods [46,47].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

2015

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“…Using the extensive kinematics data collected from our research group (von Griethuijsen and Trimmer, 2009;Trimmer and Issberner, 2007), the 2-D GRF data was scaled to the Manduca standard kinematics template representing the average step length and relative timing of proleg movements during a full crawl cycle (Fig.2). The timing of the thoracic leg contacts are also noted on this template.…”

Section: Manduca Standard Kinematics Templatementioning

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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“…The normal force, N = (ρ w −ρ f )V s g in which ρ w and ρ f are the densities of the worm and the fluid respectively, V s is the volume of the segment, and g is the gravitational constant. Resulting thrust (F = ma) is indicated by gray dashed arrows crawling horizontally [36]. Even more extreme are leeches, which use two-anchor crawling and adhere with one end using suckers while moving the rest of the body forward either with the body close to the substratum in vermiform crawling or by taking long strides with the body raised higher above the substratum in inch-worm crawling [37].…”

Section: Crawling On a Surfacementioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Constraints on the Mechanics of Crawling and Burrowing Using Hydrostatic Skeletons

Dorgan

2010

Exp Mech

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Mechanics, kinematics, and energetics of crawling and burrowing by limbless organisms using hydrostatic skeletons depend on the medium and mode in which the organism is moving. Whether the animal is moving over or through a solid has long been considered important enough to distinguish crawling and burrowing as different terms, and in fact the mechanics are very different. Crawlers use mechanisms to increase friction to generate thrust while reducing resistive friction. Burrowers in elastic muds extend their burrows by fracture, whereas sands are fluidized by burrowers much larger than grain sizes and smaller burrowers displace individual grains. Gravitational forces depend on how closely the density of the organism matches that of its fluid surroundings, therefore frictional forces depend on whether the organism is moving through air or water and fluidization on whether sands are saturated or unsaturated.

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Kinematics of horizontal and vertical caterpillar crawling

Cited by 46 publications

References 27 publications

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

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

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

Environmental Constraints on the Mechanics of Crawling and Burrowing Using Hydrostatic Skeletons

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