How to Make Structures Like Catheters Long and Strong: Lessons from the Beetle Penis (2 of 3) (IMAGE)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

How to Make Structures Like Catheters Long and Strong: Lessons from the Beetle Penis (2 of 3)

Caption

Mating of leaf beetles, its male and female reproductive organs, and new findings on stiffness gradient of the penis found based on a bending test done on a microscope. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the 20 Dec. 2017, issue of Science Advances, published by AAAS. The paper, by Y. Matsumura at Kiel University in Kiel, Germany, and colleagues was titled, "Penetration mechanics of a beetle intromittent organ with bending stiffness gradient and a soft tip."

Credit

[Credit: Matsumura, Kovalev, Gorb, Sci. Adv. 2017;3: eaao5469]

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