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The role of muscular contraction in the production of configurations in the insect skeleton
Author(s) -
Maloeuf N. S. Royston
Publication year - 1935
Publication title -
journal of morphology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.652
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1097-4687
pISSN - 0362-2525
DOI - 10.1002/jmor.1050580103
Subject(s) - biology , anatomy , contraction (grammar) , skeleton (computer programming) , sarcomere , muscular system , hemolymph , insect , adductor muscles , myocyte , endocrinology , botany
Extensive measurements were made on skeletal configurations and muscles of several forms of Hemiptera‐Homoptera from the early nymphal instars to the adults, inclusive. It has been shown that several of the muscles actually decrease in length (i.e., contract) as the animal grows as a whole. Such a state of affairs has never before been observed, so far as the writer knows. The most marked increase in length of a skeletal invagination often coincides with the greatest amount of contracture of the muscle which is attached to its extremity. The characteristics of the arthropod skeleton, which consist of invaginations and evaginations are probably, in the forms studied, due to muscular contraction or to the prolonged sustenance of muscular tonicity. The form of muscular contraction described probably belongs to the ‘catch’ type rather than to the metabolic type. The direct cause of these muscular contractions is probably due to changes in physico‐chemical constitution of the haemolymph.