title: Erection mechanism of glossal hairs during honeybee feeding.
abstract: Many animals use their mouthparts or tongue to feed themselves rapidly and efficiently. Honeybees have evolved specialized tongues to collect nectar from flowers. Nectar-intake movements consist of rapid protraction and retraction of glossa from a tube formed by the maxillae and labial palps. We establish a physical model to reveal the driving mechanism of hair erection. Results indicate that the glossa of honeybees is similar to a compression spring. Experimental results show that hair erection is generated by the tension of hyaline rod and the elasticity of segmental sheath. The retractor muscle of hyaline rod is contracted at first, which compresses the sheath of pigmented rings and flattens the hairs. While the retractor muscle of hyaline rod relaxes, the elastic energy storage in the compressed glossal sheath will release to change the equivalent stiffness of glossal sheath and erect glossal hairs. These results explain the erection mechanism of glossal hairs during honeybee feeding.
authors.affiliation: Division of Intelligent and Biomechanical System, State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Jieliang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Division of Intelligent and Biomechanical System, State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Jianing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Division of Intelligent and Biomechanical System, State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. Electronic address: yansz@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shaoze
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000502:physiology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004548:Elasticity; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D006197:Hair / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D008954:Models, Biological; D057048:Plant Nectar; D014059:Tongue / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D014741:Video Recording
chemical_list: D057048:Plant Nectar
keywords: Erection mechanism; Glossal hair; Honeybee; Hyaline rod; Segmental sheath