Ovipositor Drills Holes

a brown locust with a long ovipositor stands on a wooden table

Biological Strategy

Locust

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Move in/on Solids

To obtain needed resources or escape predators, some living systems must move on solid substances, some must move within them, and others must do both. Solids vary in their form; they can be soft or porous like leaves, sand, skin, and snow, or hard like rock, ice, or tree bark. Movement can involve a whole living system, such as an ostrich running across the ground or an earthworm burrowing through the soil. It can also involve just part of a living system, such as a mosquito poking its mouthparts into skin. Solids vary in smoothness, stickiness, moisture content, density, etc, each of which presents different challenges. As a result, living systems have adaptations to meet one, and sometimes multiple, challenges. For example, some insects must be able to hold onto both rough and slippery leaf surfaces due to the diversity in their environment.

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Insects

Class Insecta (“an insect”): Flies, ants, beetles, cockroaches, fleas, dragonflies

Insects are the most abundant arthropods—they make up 90% of the animals in the phylum. They’re found everywhere on earth except the deep ocean, and scientists estimate there are millions of insects not yet described. Most live on land, but many live in freshwater or saltwater marshes for part of their life cycles. Insects have three distinct body sections: a head, which has specialized mouthparts, a thorax, which has jointed legs, and an abdomen. They have well-developed nervous and sensory systems, and are the only invertebrate that can fly, thanks to their lightweight exoskeletons and small size.

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Ovipositors of locusts drill deep holes by use of two reciprocating rotating elements.

Image: Wikimedia Commons /

Wanderheuschrecke. (Locusta migratoria). Aufnahme: Zoo Basel.

Image: Matsumomushi / Wikimedia Commons /

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Image: Mariluna / Wikimedia Commons /

Locusta migratoria ???????

Image: ChriKo / Wikimedia Commons /

Female ''Locusta migratoria migratorioides'' near Aeterba, Red Sea coast, Sudan.

“When females of locust species such as Locusta migratoria, Schistocerca gregaria (Forskal), S.peregrina (Olivier), Anacridium aegyptium and a number of other Acrididae dig oviposition holes, they stretch the intersegmental membranes between abdominal segments IV, V, VI and VII and thus make a hole considerably deeper than could otherwise be achieved. The ovipositor valves provide the force for this extension. The ovipositor is a boring machine which, once set in motion with its prongs against the soil, must automatically bury itself and in doing so it will stretch the easily extended abdomen to its full length, so long as the insect maintains it hold on the ground. The findings of the study provide an insight to the functioning of the locust apparatus, and suggested the possibility to develop an innovative digging system composed by two reciprocating rotating elements.” (Courtesy of the Biomimicry Guild)

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