A study of ladder-like silk foothold for the locomotion of bagworms
Abstract While walking on horizontal substrates, caterpillars skilfully engage all their legs, including three pairs of thoracic legs and a maximum of five pairs of prolegs, to move in a flexible wave-like motion. Such locomotory behaviours, represented by ‘crawling’ and ‘inching’ motions, have wide...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2021-08-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-95809-7 |
| _version_ | 1818843936084459520 |
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| author | Taiyo Yoshioka Fumiko Yukuhiro Tsunenori Kameda |
| author_facet | Taiyo Yoshioka Fumiko Yukuhiro Tsunenori Kameda |
| author_sort | Taiyo Yoshioka |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract While walking on horizontal substrates, caterpillars skilfully engage all their legs, including three pairs of thoracic legs and a maximum of five pairs of prolegs, to move in a flexible wave-like motion. Such locomotory behaviours, represented by ‘crawling’ and ‘inching’ motions, have widely inspired the development of locomotion systems in soft robotics. However, bagworms are unable to use their prolegs for walking because these are always accommodated in a portable bag; thus, they are unable to walk using such general locomotory behaviours. Indeed, how they walk with only three pairs of thoracic legs is unknown at present. In this study, we show that bagworms construct a ladder-like foothold using their silk to walk without using prolegs. This enables them to walk not only on horizontal floor surfaces but also on wall and ceiling surfaces, even those with slippery or smooth surfaces. They construct the foothold by spinning a continuous silk thread in a zigzag manner and controlling the discharge of adhesive to attach the folded parts of the silk to a substrate. Discovery of this elaborate silk utilisation technique offers fresh insights into the diversity of silk use in lepidopteran larvae and provides potential designs for robot locomotion systems. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T05:05:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-496430becc0d43b4a3f027552e87c304 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T05:05:47Z |
| publishDate | 2021-08-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-496430becc0d43b4a3f027552e87c3042022-12-21T20:34:56ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222021-08-011111910.1038/s41598-021-95809-7A study of ladder-like silk foothold for the locomotion of bagwormsTaiyo Yoshioka0Fumiko Yukuhiro1Tsunenori Kameda2Silk Materials Research Group, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO)Silk Materials Research Group, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO)Silk Materials Research Group, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO)Abstract While walking on horizontal substrates, caterpillars skilfully engage all their legs, including three pairs of thoracic legs and a maximum of five pairs of prolegs, to move in a flexible wave-like motion. Such locomotory behaviours, represented by ‘crawling’ and ‘inching’ motions, have widely inspired the development of locomotion systems in soft robotics. However, bagworms are unable to use their prolegs for walking because these are always accommodated in a portable bag; thus, they are unable to walk using such general locomotory behaviours. Indeed, how they walk with only three pairs of thoracic legs is unknown at present. In this study, we show that bagworms construct a ladder-like foothold using their silk to walk without using prolegs. This enables them to walk not only on horizontal floor surfaces but also on wall and ceiling surfaces, even those with slippery or smooth surfaces. They construct the foothold by spinning a continuous silk thread in a zigzag manner and controlling the discharge of adhesive to attach the folded parts of the silk to a substrate. Discovery of this elaborate silk utilisation technique offers fresh insights into the diversity of silk use in lepidopteran larvae and provides potential designs for robot locomotion systems.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-95809-7 |
| spellingShingle | Taiyo Yoshioka Fumiko Yukuhiro Tsunenori Kameda A study of ladder-like silk foothold for the locomotion of bagworms Scientific Reports |
| title | A study of ladder-like silk foothold for the locomotion of bagworms |
| title_full | A study of ladder-like silk foothold for the locomotion of bagworms |
| title_fullStr | A study of ladder-like silk foothold for the locomotion of bagworms |
| title_full_unstemmed | A study of ladder-like silk foothold for the locomotion of bagworms |
| title_short | A study of ladder-like silk foothold for the locomotion of bagworms |
| title_sort | study of ladder like silk foothold for the locomotion of bagworms |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-95809-7 |
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