The lamellate appearance of the cuticle in the abdomen of the Rhodnius larva conforms to the conception of Bouligand in being an optical artifact which results from the spiral arrangement of successive layers of oriented fibrils. But superimposed on this structure is an actual lamination of bound lipid with the same spacing. The relation of the lipid layers to the optical lamination changes wit...

Recent work has shown that the mechanical properties of insect cuticle can change suddenly (Cottrell, 1962; Bennet-Clark, 1962). In the larva of Rhodnius it was found that the abdominal endocuticle rapidly becomes extensible when the insect starts to feed (Bennet-Clark, 1962); the abdomen can then expand greatly to accommodate the large meal of blood. Bennet-Clark suggested that this plasticiza...

Seeds of different cultivars of Glycine max (L.) Merr. (soybean) have strikingly different rates of water imbibition. Seeds that readily imbibe water are termed 'soft', while those that remain non-permeable, even after several days in water, are referred to as 'hard', 'stone', or 'impermeable' seeds. What prevents soybean hard seeds from taking up water? Previous work established that the initi...

Various microscopic techniques allow investigating structures from submicron to millimeter range, however, this is only possible if the structures of interest are not covered by pigmented cuticle. Here, we present a protocol that combines clearing of pigmented cuticle while preserving both, hard and soft tissues. The resulting transparent cuticle allows confocal laser-scanning microscopy (CLSM)...

We have characterised the function of two Drosophila genes, miniature and dusky, that are required for the morphological reorganisation of the apical membrane during wing epidermis differentiation. These genes encode transmembrane proteins containing a ZP (zona pellucida) domain and are homologous to several vertebrate and invertebrate apical matrix components. miniature and dusky are only expr...

The Drosophila segmentation gene paired, whose product is homologous to the Drosophila Gooseberry and mammalian Pax3 proteins, has three general functions: proper development of the larval cuticle, survival to adulthood and male fertility. Both DNA-binding domains, the conserved N-terminal paired-domain and prd-type homeodomain, are required within the same molecule for all general paired funct...

The insect cuticle is a typical natural composite with excellent strength, stiffness, and fracture toughness. Scanning electron microscope observation of the microstructure of Hydrophilidae (an insect) cuticle showed several unique plies and structural characteristics, which may provide available information to the design of advanced composites. The microstructure found in the vicinity of pore ...

The plant cuticle is an extracellular lipid structure deposited over the aerial surfaces of land plants, which seals the shoot and protects it from biotic and abiotic stresses. It is composed of cutin polymer matrix and waxes, produced and secreted by epidermal cells. The use of forward and reverse genetic approaches in Arabidopsis has led to the identification of enzymes involved in fatty acid...

Arthropods (i.e. insects, spiders, crustaceans, myriapods and others), are the most successful Phanerozoic animals. The group is characterized by possession of a segmented body, jointed limbs hard cuticle that episodically moulted. One highly but now extinct arthropods trilobites. Trilobites underwent episodic moulting (ecdysis), trilobites possess facial sutures, lines weakness in cephalon, vi...

Many parts of the insect exoskeleton experience repeated cyclic loading. Although the cuticle of insects and other arthropods is the second most common natural composite material in the world, so far nothing is known about its fatigue properties, despite the fact that fatigue undoubtedly limits the durability of body parts in vivo. For the first time, we here present experimental fatigue data o...