Insect Locomotion Flashcards
What is required for locomotion?
sensory organs, CNS, skeletomuscular system
What stance do insects use?
The tripod stance
What do insects use to better grip the substrate?
Claws, arolia, pulvilli and hairy pads
What are adhesive tarsal pads made of?
tenent hairs adhesion caused by surface tension of fluid
Other than walking how can insects with no legs move?
Crawling
How do insects crawl?
They use hemolymph pressure and a hydrostatic skeleton to contract and relax their body to move throughout their environment
How do maggots crawl?
Waves of contraction and relaxation that run from head to tail, bands of adhesive hooks and a mouth that grips to substrate
How do caterpillars crawl?
The move their prolegs posteriorly to anteriorly one by one from the substrate to crawl forwards using retractor muscles
Other than crawling and Walking how else can insects move on the ground?
Jumping
What morphological traits enable insects to jump?
Modified hindlegs, Long legs, Mechanism to store and release energy quickly
What is the fastest jumping insect?
Froghoppers
Where is energy stores in Auchenorrhyncha jumpers?
Energy is stored at the coxo-trochanteral joint
Where is energy stored in fleas?
In a compression pad made of resilin
How does jumping work without the use of legs?
Collembola are able to jump with the use of terminal furcula and click beetles use a peg and pit structure to lever themselves off their backs
How do Insects walk on water?
Surface tension of water acts like an elastic membrane. Many insects also use hydrophobic hairs on their legs and abdomens to stay above water. They use a hydrophilic claw to propel across the surface.
What was recently discovered about water strider movement?
They use vortices to created by their hydrophilic claws to give them additional propulsion
How do Staphylinidae move across the water?
With the help of hydrophobic hairs and the pygidial gland that reduces water surface tension behind them essentially propelling them forwards
What can it be difficult to climb out of the water how do waterlily leaf beetles combat this?
The meniscus of the water makes a small climb up even larger, waterlily leaf beetles ride the meniscus of the water sinking the middle abdomen down and pushing their head up.
How do insects walk underwater?
Similarly to as they do on land, there are additional forces that push against them
What features enable insects to swim?
streamlined bodies, oar-like hindlegs
What are oar like hind legs?
Legs covered in long hairs like a bipectinate antennae that provide like to no resistance on the recovery stroke but a wide surface area on the power stroke.
What are the technical names for the recovery and power strokes?
retraction (Power) protraction (recovery)
What are the divisions of the insect order in relation to wings?
Apterygota, Paleoptera, Neoptera
What is the group apterygota?
The ancestral insects that have no wings
