Caterpillar Crawl (VIDEO)
Caption
Tufts University-led researchers studying caterpillars have reported on a unique system of locomotion never before reported for any animal, which may have implications for robot design and for human biomechanics. In a study published online June 22 in the journal Current Biology, the biologists reported that the gut of the crawling tobacco hawkmoth caterpillar (Manduca sexta) moves forward independently of and in advance of the surrounding body wall and legs, rather than moving along with them. This novel two-body mechanical system involves "visceral-locomotory pistoning" in which the body segments (represented by green spheres) contract in a longitudinal wave from back to front, while the gut (represented by the long cylinder) changes size under action by the front and back of the body. Collaborating with Tufts were researchers from Virginia Tech and Argonne National Laboratory. (Michael Simon/Tufts University. Not to scale.)
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Michael Simon/Tufts University
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