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
What is the group paleoptera?
The group that first evolved wings, fused sclerites at the base of the wing, wings can move independently
What is the group neoptera?
more derived wings can be folded over the thorax, indirect flight muscles, wings move in unison
What are axillary sclerites?
A hardened portion of the cuticle at the base of the wing, allows complex wing movements, move together through joints and hinges in neoptera, fused together in paleoptera.
What are the structure that enable flight on the side of the thoracic segments?
Pleural wing process, basalare sclerite, subalare sclerite, phragma
What are the two categories of flight muscles?
Direct and Indirect
What muscles does direct flight use?
Dorsoventral (upstroke) and basalare and subalare (downstroke)
What type of muscles does indirect flight use?
Dorso-Ventral (Upstroke), Dorso-Longitudinal (Downstroke)
What does the pleural wing process do in flight?
Acts as a fulcrum to enable the wing to act against
What insect orders are direct flyers?
Odonata, Ephemeroptera, Blattodea
Which insect orders are indirect flyers?
Everything - apterygota - Odonata, ephemeroptera and blattodea
What is the trajectory of the wing in flight?
A figure 8
What is the motion called when the leading edge flips down at the top of the upstroke?
Pronation
What is the motion called when the leading edge flips up at the base of the downstroke?
Supination
What is the wing angle called?
Pitch
What do the basalare and subalare muscles do in indirect flight?
They control the pitch of the wing
Which muscle controls pronation?
Basalare
Which muscle controls Supination
Subalare
How do the wings move air to creating thrust?
They create vortices through their path creating an air current that pushes them forwards
How to small insects creating thrust with their wings?
They create currents with the help of the clap and fling method.
What are the two types of neural impulses for flight?
Synchronous (one impulse = one beat), asynchronous (one impulse = more than one beat)
What muscles are used in synchronous flight?
Neurogenic msucles
What muscles are used in asynchronous flight?
Myogenic muscles
How does asynchronous flight work?
Muscles contract once and resilin within pleural wing process and the notum cause wing to beat more than once
What are the different types of wing coupling
mecopteran (using little hairs), Jugate coupling (using a long extension, frenate coupling (using large joined hairs or one large hair called a frenulum), Hmauli coupling (Hymenoptera hooks) and amplexiform coupling (laid one on top of the other)
What structures do insects use to monitor and control flight speed and direction?
Compound eyes give visual cues, Dorsal ocelli show rotation, Johnstan’s organ monitors anteanna vibration and halteres in Diptera act as gyroscopes, can also use legs for direction
How do scientists study insect flight?
using high speed cameras, wind tunnels, smoke trails, strobe lights, electrophysiology and models
