EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENTOMOLOGY

Eur. J. Entomol. 103 (1): 17-26, 2006 | DOI: 10.14411/eje.2006.003

Heartbeat reversal after sectioning the dorsal vessel and removal of the brain of diapausing pupae of Manduca sexta (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae)

Karel SLÁMA

Institute of Entomology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Drnovská 507, 161 00 Praha 6, Czech Republic; e-mail: slama@entu.cas.cz

Reversal of heartbeat was monitored in vivo by noninvasive, multisensor, thermo-cardiographic and pulse-light, opto-cardiographic techniques. The dorsal vessel was sectioned at the beginning, in the middle and near the end of the abdomen. Changes in the heartbeat were simultaneously monitored in both the disconnected anterior and posterior sections of the heart. The results revealed the existence of a caudal regulatory cardiac centre located in the fused A₇-A₁₀ abdominal segments. Posterior sections, containing this terminal ampulla of the heart always exhibited a more or less normal heartbeat reversal, including both anterograde and retrograde pulsations. This shows that the forward-oriented as well as the reciprocal, backward-oriented peristaltic waves of the heart are both regulated from the posterior regulatory center, without involvement of the cephalic region. The cardiac pulsations in the anterior sections of the heart were paralysed and seriously impaired by the lesions. During the acute phase after the lesions, anterior sections showed only some convulsion-like, unidirectional, backward-oriented peristaltic pulsations of low frequency. Within one or two days after the lesions, isolated anterior sections of the heart developed a subsidiary heartbeat regulation associated with the oscillating, bi-directional peristaltic waves running alternatively, forward and backward in opposite directions.


After a few days, the previously paralysed anterior sections of the heart were able to develop perfectly coordinated patterns of heartbeat reversal. At this time, the two asynchronous heartbeat patterns ran separately in each of the divided sections of the heart. One or two weeks later, reversal of the heartbeat occasionally occurred synchronously along the entire length of the dorsal vessel. Sectioning of the ventral nerve cord, removal of the cephalic nervous system (brain, frontal ganglion, suboesophageal ganglion and the associated nerves) or removal of the fused terminal abdominal ganglionic mass and adjacent caudal nerves, had no effect on the pattern of heartbeat reversal. These facts indicate that the pupal heart of M. sexta operates purely myogenically, like the human heart. The myogenic pacemakers of the caudal regulatory cardiac centre (analogous to the atrio-ventricular nodes of the human heart) are autonomous, generating inherent rhythmicity without intervention from the nervous system. Development of subsidiary pacemakers regulating rhythmicity in the lesioned myocardium and restitution of the synchronized contracting integrity between the two disconnected sections of the heart are new cardiological features, which merit further investigation.

Keywords: Cardiac functions, heartbeat reversal, anterograde heartbeat, retrograde heartbeat, sectioned heart, myogenic heart, decerebrated pupae, Manduca sexta

Received: May 26, 2005; Revised: August 3, 2005; Accepted: August 3, 2005; Published: January 30, 2006  Show citation