Salamatin Artur A, Adler Peter H, Kornev Konstantin G
18 Kremlyovskaya str, Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies & Institute of Computational Mathematics and Information Technologies, Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Tatarstan 420008, Russia.
130 McGinty Court, E-143 Poole Agricultural Center, Dept. of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA.
J Theor Biol. 2021 Feb 7;510:110525. doi: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2020.110525. Epub 2020 Oct 14.
Proboscises of many fluid-feeding insects share a common architecture: they have a partially open food canal along their length. This feature has never been discussed in relation to the feeding mechanism. We formulated and solved a fluid mechanics model of fluid uptake and estimated the time required to completely fill the food canal of the entire proboscis through the openings along its length. Butterflies and moths are taken as illustrative and representative of fluid-feeding insects. We demonstrated that the proposed mechanism of filling the proboscis with fluid through permeable lengthwise bands, in association with a thin film of saliva in the food canal, offers a competitive pathway for fluid uptake. Compared with the conventional mechanism of fluid uptake through apically restricted openings, the new mechanism provides a faster rate of fluid uptake, especially for long-tongued insects. Accordingly, long-tongued insects with permeable lengthwise bands would be able to more rapidly exploit a broader range of liquids in the form of films, pools, and discontinuous columns, thereby conserving energy and minimizing exposure to predators, particularly for hovering insects.
它们沿着长度方向有一条部分开放的食物通道。这一特征从未与进食机制相关联进行过讨论。我们建立并求解了一个液体摄取的流体力学模型，并估计了通过其长度方向的开口完全填满整个喙的食物通道所需的时间。蝴蝶和蛾类被用作吸食液体昆虫的示例和代表。我们证明，所提出的通过可渗透的纵向带将液体填充到喙中的机制，与食物通道中的一层唾液薄膜相结合，为液体摄取提供了一种有竞争力的途径。与通过顶端受限开口摄取液体的传统机制相比，新机制提供了更快的液体摄取速率，特别是对于长喙昆虫而言。因此，具有可渗透纵向带的长喙昆虫将能够以薄膜、水洼和不连续柱状物的形式更快地利用更广泛的液体，从而节省能量并最大限度地减少暴露于捕食者的风险，尤其是对于悬停的昆虫。
