HOW MAGGOTS MOVE - ALLOMETRY AND KINEMATICS OF CRAWLING IN LARVAL DIPTERA

We describe the kinematics and allometry of limbless locomotion in the larvae of four species of Diptera: Drosophila melanogaster, Musca domestica, Protophormia terraenovae and Sarcophaga bullafa. In the small species, D. melanogaster and M. domestica, crawling involves a series of telescoping peristaltic movements; in the two larger species, it consists of a combination of telescoping and caterpillar-like movements. Speed, contractions per second and the distance traveled per contraction are correlated with mass, We contrast these relationships to the kinematics of caterpillar and limbed insect locomotion. Crawling by larval flies is notable for its low speed compared to limbed insects and for the fact that both contraction frequency and the distance traveled per contraction increase with speed.