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Journal of Experimental Biology 40,223-229 (1963)
Published by Company of Biologists 1963

Negative Pressures Produced in the Pharyngeal Pump of the Blood-Sucking Bug, Rhodnius Prolixus

H. C. BENNET-CLARK ¹

¹ The Zoological Laboratory, Cambridge; The J. J. Thomson Physical Laboratory, The University, Reading

1. The sucking pump of Rhodnius drives blood from the host into the abdomen at a rate of up to 20 mm.³/min. The stylet canal is 8-10 µ diameter at the apex and the rate of taper is not more than 1 µ increase in diameter/100 µ length.

2. The pressure required to force water through such a tube at that rate is about 2 atmospheres. The pressure required with blood would be higher.

3. The musculature of the pump is theoretically capable of exerting a force on the pump piston of at least atmospheres, while contracting at the required speed.

4. The bug is capable of feeding at near to the normal rate when the surrounding pressure is 0.2 atmospheres and also against a pressure gradient of 0.2 atmospheres.

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