Study On The Feeding Kinematic Of Glossa And The Mechanism Of Its Deformation

With the application and development of microfluidics technology,the demand for new types of micro fluid drive and control technology increases significantly.A honeybee,as a typical insect with chewing-lapping mouthpart,takes nectar with high concentration and viscosity.Its feeding mechanism may inspire new fluid transmission devices.Early in 20 th century,the anatomy of a honeybee's mouthpart and its feeding mechanism have got a lot attention from scholars.However,due to restrictions such as observation accuracy and photography technology,the detailed microstructure of a honeybee's mouthpart and its feeding kinematic have not been systematically revealed yet.This paper focus on the microstructure of glossal surface,feeding kinematics of the honeybee glossa and biomimetic compliant mechanisms.Firstly,through microscopic techniques,such as SEM and TEM,microstructure of glassa was observed clearly.The honeybee's glossa is a multi-articulate structure covered with ring-like long hairs,which is comprised of a hyaline rod and a chitinous sheath.There are no muscles or other drivers in a glossa,but there are two retractor muscles attached at the base of rod.Secondly,a high-speed camera system ameliorated by a microscope revealed morphological changes in glossal surfaces during live honeybees' nectar dipping and surface configurations through the stretching of postmortem honeybees' glossae.During nectar feeding,a drinking tube formed by the galeae and labial palpi remains relatively motionless while the glossa rapidly and repeatedly protracts and retracts to trap nectar.The glossal hairs erected rhythmically when drinking nectar.Specifically,hairs on the proximal segment erected earlier than those on the distal end of a honeybee's glossa,which was identified as the phenomenon of asynchronous hair erection.Meanwhile,shortening and lengthening of the glossal segments perform high concordance with the erection of glossal hairs.Thirdly,a nectar drinking model of the honeybee is presented and compared theintake volume to the previously-proposed models,confirming that the hair erection and segment elongation can remarkably contribute to augmenting the nectar-intake volume of honeybees.A honeybee may also achieve an efficient energy-saving mechanism by adjusting the erection angles to balance the volume of trapped nectar and the energy used for overcoming viscous drag.According to the morphing phenomena,a compliant mechanism model inspired by the honeybee's glossa was proposed to predict the deformation behavior of it considering elastic properties of the glossal intersegmental membranes.The glossa sheath is a series of thick cuticle walls connected by flexible membranes and the energy stored in intersegmental membranes can impel the hair erection.Lastly,a compliant mechanism model with two flexible links and its design guidelines were presented.The analysis of the biomimetic compliant mechanism of glossal segments can lay the foundation for the research and development of micro compliant devices for liquid transportation.