Self-assembly of the butterfly proboscis: the role of capillary forces

Zhang, Chengqi; Adler, Peter H.; Monaenkova, Daria; Andrukh, Taras; Pometto, Suellen; beard, charles e.; Kornev, Konstantin G.

doi:10.1098/rsif.2018.0229

Cited by 16 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 32 publications

(58 reference statements)

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“…Understanding the mouthpart functionality of pollinating insects is of widespread interest to multiple disciplines (Lehnert et al, 2017;Li et al, 2016;Zhang et al, 2018). Here, we demonstrated that the lepidopteran proboscis displays a suite of mechanistic adaptations that relate to different feeding habits and enables feeding from floral tubes.…”

Section: Con Clus Ionsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Physical adaptations of butterfly proboscises enable feeding from narrow floral tubes

Lehnert

Johnson

Wu³

et al. 2021

Functional Ecology

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1. Butterflies use a proboscis, a microfluidic probe engineered by natural selection, to feed on nutritive fluids. The structural configuration of proboscises relates to feeding habits; however, the adaptations that enable proboscis entry into narrow floral corollas lack experimental evidence.2. Here, we investigated proboscis adaptations that enable entry into corollas using funnel-shaped glass capillary tubes and performed feeding trials with six butterfly species of different feeding habits. Proboscises were either guided (natural treatment) or forced (forced treatment) into the capillary tubes that were filled with a 20% sucrose solution. The treatments were video-recorded to determine the depth the proboscises reached into the tube and how long they remained there.The results were interpreted in terms of proboscis morphology, friction forces and the material properties of the cuticle.3. In the natural treatment, butterflies classified as flower visitors were more efficient at feeding from the tubes, reaching an average 1.83× deeper into the tubes than the other species and never getting their proboscises stuck. The non-flowervisiting species, in contrast, had their proboscises remain in the tube 17× longer than the flower-visiting species, with 90% of them getting their proboscises at least partially stuck. The butterfly species with generalist feeding habits fed more efficiently than the non-flower visitors, but less than the flower visitors. A similar pattern was observed in the forced treatment. 4. Flower-visiting butterflies had smoother and more tapered proboscises, lower friction forces and a semi-circular cross-section that would reduce bendability and was augmented by a more sclerotized cuticle. Proboscises of flower-visiting butterflies, therefore, have a suite of adaptations that operate synergistically to optimize their feeding habits.

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Section: Con Clus Ionsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Physical adaptations of butterfly proboscises enable feeding from narrow floral tubes

Lehnert

Johnson

Wu³

et al. 2021

Functional Ecology

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“…[ 126 ] Besides acquiring microfluidics from the environment, the proboscis is also a device for butterflies to release saliva for assembly and repair the separated proboscis or cleaning after feeding. [ 127 ] Inspired by the butterfly proboscis, Tsai et al fabricated the multilevel porous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) fiber bundles through electrospinning to probes for a minute amount. Taking advantage of the electroconductibility of PVDF, the flexible PVDF fiber bundles can be manipulated by an electric field to detect the micro drops precisely.…”

Section: Bioinspired Superwetting Open Microfluidicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioinspired Superwetting Open Microfluidics: From Concepts, Phenomena to Applications

et al. 2023

Adv Funct Materials

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Microfluidics and bioinspired superwetting materials, as two crucial branches of scientific research, are entering their golden age of development. As an emerging interdisciplinary subject of these two fields, bioinspired superwetting open microfluidics is triggering technological revolutions in many disciplines, including rapid medical diagnosis, biochemical analysis, liquid manipulation, 3D printing, etc. However, this new research area has yet to attract extensive attention. So, a timely review is necessary to organize the development process, summarize current achievements, and discuss the challenges or chances for the ongoing scientific trend. In this review, the evolution from closed to open microfluidics is combed first. Then, three typical bioinspired superwetting systems are introduced emphatically. Based on this, the bioinspired superwetting open microfluidics is divided into different categories according to the bionic objects as the focus of this study. Taking natural phenomena as the entry point, the research from the underlying mechanism to the application is systematically discussed and summarized. Several emerging applications are also mentioned. Finally, some views on major problems, existing challenges, and developing trends are briefly put forward in this field to guide future research.

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“…The moth proboscis is a modified mouthpart that evolved from the two maxilla. When the moth first emerges from the pupal case, it unites the two galeae of the maxilla, and zips them together to form a central tube called the food canal, which serves as a drinking straw (Zhang et al, 2018). Both galeae are heavily muscularized and hydraulically controlled such that the proboscis is both flexible and actively actuated by muscles at its base and along its length (Wannenmacher and Wasserthal, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tactile active sensing in an insect plant pollinator

Deora

Ahmed

Daniel

et al. 2021

Journal of Experimental Biology

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The interaction between insects and the flowers they pollinate has driven the evolutionary diversity of both insects and flowering plants, two groups with the most numerous species on earth. Insects use vision and olfaction to localize host plants, but we know relatively little about how they find the tiny nectary opening in the flower, which can be well beyond their visual resolution. Especially when vision is limited, touch becomes crucial in successful insect-plant pollination interactions. Here, we study the remarkable feeding behavior of crepuscular hawkmoths Manduca sexta that use their long, actively controlled, proboscis to expertly explore flower-like surfaces. Using machine vision and 3D printed artificial flower-like feeders, we reveal a novel behavior that shows moths actively probe surfaces, sweeping their proboscis from the feeder edge to its center repeatedly until they locate the nectary opening. Moreover, naive moths rapidly learn to exploit these flowers, and they adopt a tactile search strategy to more directly locate the nectary opening in as few as three to five consecutive visits. Our results highlight the proboscis as a unique active sensory structure and emphasize the central role of touch in nectar foraging insect plant pollinator interactions.

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Self-assembly of the butterfly proboscis: the role of capillary forces

Cited by 16 publications

References 32 publications

Physical adaptations of butterfly proboscises enable feeding from narrow floral tubes

Physical adaptations of butterfly proboscises enable feeding from narrow floral tubes

Bioinspired Superwetting Open Microfluidics: From Concepts, Phenomena to Applications

Tactile active sensing in an insect plant pollinator

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