Rolling Locomotion Aids Escape

a white moth sits on a brown natural surface

Biological Strategy

Mother of pearl moth

AskNature Team

Image: Nick Goodrum / Flickr / CC BY - Creative Commons Attribution alone

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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Protect From Animals

Animals–organisms that range from microscopic to larger than a bus–embody a wide variety of harms to living systems, including other animals. They threaten through predation, herbivory, defense, and parasitism, and they compete for resources such as water, nutrients, and space. Any given living organism commonly faces threats from a variety of animals, requiring strategies that effectively defend from each. Trout and other bony fish, for example, escape predators by having scales made of very thin, flake-like pieces of bone covered with slippery mucus. They also have behavioral strategies such as camouflage, fast swimming, and twisting and turning to achieve release from a predator’s grip.

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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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The body of the mother-of-pearl moth caterpillar escapes predators by anchoring its tail, recoiling, and rolling backwards.

Image: Wikimedia Commons /

Boczanka br?zowianka (Pleuroptya ruralis)

Image: Wikimedia Commons /

Boczanka br?zowianka (Pleuroptya ruralis)

“The mother-of-pearl caterpillar, however, can step on the accelerator. If it meets a predator, it anchors its rear to the ground, recoils rapidly, and then rolls away backward like a bright-green tire. Mouth to tail, it completes around half a dozen revolutions during its escape. By turning into a wheel, the caterpillar moves some 40 times faster than its normal walking pace.” (Downer 2002:22)

Last Updated August 18, 2016

References

Book

Weird Nature: An Astonishing Exploration of Nature's Strangest Behavior

02/03/2002 | John Downer

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