Summary
Manduca sexta escapes from the pupal cuticle by coordinated movements of abdomen, wing-bases, and legs. We have examined the thoracic motor output during eclosion by recording extracellularly from the indirect flight muscles. The motor pattern produced during wing-shrugging movements (Fig. 2) is characterized by alternating activity in the flight muscles and increasing numbers of muscle potentials per burst in successive cycles of wing movements. The wing-shrugging motor pattern differs from that of flight and from the pattern produced by an adult moth with its wings restrained (Figs. 3, 6). Eclosion behavior, including the typical motor pattern, can be induced prematurely, 30–36 h before eclosion. Young adults that have already expanded their wings can be stimulated to repeat the eclosion and wing-expansion behavior, but after 20 h post-eclosion, both responses disappear (Fig. 5). Restraint and mechanical stimulation, particularly of the legs, are important stimuli in eliciting eclosion behavior. Since eclosion in saturniid moths is initiated by a hormone, the effectiveness of mechanical stimuli was unexpected.
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This work was supported by NSF grant No. BNS75-18569. We are grateful to Dr. Karl Kramer and his associates at the U.S. Grain Marketing Research Center for providing animals. We thank Dr. Kramer and Dr. John Kinnamon for a critical reading of the manuscript. We also thank Dr. James Truman for sending us a copy of his recent paper prior to its publication.
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Kammer, A.E., Kinnamon, S.C. Patterned muscle activity during eclosion in the hawkmothManduca sexta . J. Comp. Physiol. 114, 313–326 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00657326
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00657326