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Structure and functions of the ventral tube of the clover springtail Sminthurus viridis (Collembola Sminthuridae)

Yes / Springtails (Collembola) are unique in Hexapoda for bearing a ventral tube (collophore) on the first abdominal segment. Although numerous studies have been conducted on the functions of the ventral tube, its fine structure has not been thoroughly elucidated to date. In this paper, we observed the jumping behavior of the clover springtail Sminthurus viridis (Linnaeus, 1758) and dissected the ventral tube using light microscopy to elucidate the fine structure and the possible function of the ventral tube. The results show that a pair of eversible vesicles can be extended from the apical opening of the ventral tube. The eversible vesicles are furnished with numerous small papillae, and can be divided into a basal part and a distal part. The eversible vesicles have a central lumen connected to the tiny papillae and leading to the body cavity. The eversible vesicles can reach any part of the body, and may serve as following functions: (a) absorbing moisture; (b) uptaking water; (c) cleaning the body surface; and (d) fastening the body on a smooth surface.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/16817
Date29 January 2019
CreatorsChen, C-G., Chen, T., Hua, B-Z., Wan, Tao Ruan
Source SetsBradford Scholars
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeArticle, Published version
Rights© The Author(s) 2019. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/., CC-BY

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