The flow generated by an active olfactory system of the red swamp crayfish

Physics – Fluid Dynamics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

20 pages, 9 figures, flow visualization

Scientific paper

Crayfish are nocturnal animals that mainly rely on their chemoreceptors to locate food. On a crayfish scale chemical stimuli received from a distant source are dispersed by an ambient flow rather than molecular diffusion. When the flow is weak or absent, food search can be facilitated by currents generated by the animal itself. Crayfish employ their anterior fan organs to produce a variety of flow patterns. Here we study the flow generated by Procambarus clarkii in response to odour stimulation. We found that while searching for food the crayfish generates one or two outward jets. These jets create an inflow which draws odour to the crayfish's anterior chemoreceptors. We quantified velocity fields in the inflow region using Particle Image Velocimetry. The results show that the inflow velocity decreases proportionally to the inverse distance from the animal so that it takes about a minute for an odour plume to reach the animal's chemoreceptors from a distance of 10 cm. We compare the inflow generated by live crayfish with that produced by a mimicking device, a phantom. The phantom consisted of two nozzles and an inlet providing two jets and a sink so that the overall mass flux was zero. The use of a phantom enabled us to analyze the inflow at various jet parameters. We showed that variation of the jets' directions and relative intensities allows changing the direction of odour attraction. These results provide a rationale for biomimetic robot design. We discuss sensitivity and efficiency of such a robot.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

The flow generated by an active olfactory system of the red swamp crayfish does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The flow generated by an active olfactory system of the red swamp crayfish, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The flow generated by an active olfactory system of the red swamp crayfish will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-438350

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.