ArticleScience advances2017
Penetration mechanics of a beetle intromittent organ with bending stiffness gradient and a soft tip.
Article in Science advances, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Molecular origin of anisotropic shear elastoplasticity in chitin.Science advances · 2026Article
- Correlated evolution of elaborate intromission mechanics during copulation between the sexes in leaf beetles.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2025Article
- Review
- Copulatory behaviour and genital mechanics suggest sperm allocation by a non-intromittent sclerite in a pholcid spider.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Material gradients in gastropod radulae and their biomechanical significance: a combined approach on the paludomid Lavigeria grandis.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2022Article
- Soft robotic steerable microcatheter for the endovascular treatment of cerebral disorders.Science robotics · 2021Article
- Mechanical properties of a female reproductive tract of a beetle and implications for penile penetration.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Penetration mechanics of elongated female and male genitalia of earwigs.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Resilin Distribution and Sexual Dimorphism in the Midge Antenna and Their Influence on Frequency Sensitivity.Insects · 2020Article
- Illuminating nature's beauty: modular, scalable and low-cost LED dome illumination system using 3D-printing technology.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Functional significance of graded properties of insect cuticle supported by an evolutionary analysis.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2020Article
- Sperm transfer through hyper-elongated beetle penises - morphology and theoretical approaches.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Material stiffness variation in mosquito antennae.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2019Article
- Functional principles of steerable multi-element probes in insects.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2019Review
- Article
- A simple, high-resolution, non-destructive method for determining the spatial gradient of the elastic modulus of insect cuticle.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Hyper-elongated structures and their penetration are widespread among insects, for example, intromittent organs, ovipositors, and piercing-sucking mouthparts. The penetration of thin structures with high aspect ratio without buckling and rupturing is mechanically very challenging. However, this problem is economically solved in nature, and the solutions might be helpful for, for example, in the development of harmless catheters. We focus on the penetration process of a hyper-elongated structure of a cassidine beetle intromittent organ, termed a flagellum. We applied a three-point bending test for the flagellum to measure its bending stiffness along the entire flagellum. We demonstrated the bending stiffness gradient, in which the basal half is relatively stiff and the apical half is softer, whose good performance during copulation had been previously numerically demonstrated. The stiffness gradient is the result of the flagellum shape, which is cylindrical and tapered toward the tip. Moreover, the curved tip comprises a harder outer curve and a softer inner curve. Considering the findings of preceding studies, the flagellum works in the following way: (i) the bending stiffness gradient supports the flagellum, easily fitting to a shape of a highly coiled spermathecal duct, (ii) the stiffness property of the very tip may make the tip tougher, and (iii) the curled tip and homogeneously cylindrical shape of the organ help the very tip to fit the shape of the spermathecal duct of the female. Our study shows that the apparently simple flagellum penetration is achieved with numerous elaborate mechanical adaptations.
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