Speculative Species

In Speculative Evolution, we envisioned how species could be further developed to increase their resilience based on scientific publications on synthetic biology, genetic engineering and robotics, and formulated text prompts to create AI-generated images using DALL-E. As a result, each speculative species in the environment has a backstory rooted in real-life scenarios.
 
 


Flower Beetle
Flower Beetles
2015radio system developed to remotely stimulate free flying beetles by electrical stimulation
Laboratory research by Sato et al., 2015
2054remote controlled with lightweight solar cells and trained for uniform seed distribution

Lineage of the 28 species from a total of 33

    • Flower Beetle, Species 23-1Samsung G955F, Android 9, Zurich, Switzerland (23-1)
      • Flower Beetle, Species 23-1-1Samsung G955F, Android 9, Zurich, Switzerland (23-1-1)
      • Flower Beetle, Species 23-1-2Samsung G950F, Android 9, São Paulo, Brazil (23-1-2)
    • Flower Beetle, Species 23-10Samsung G955U, Android 9, Xi'an, China (23-10)
      • Flower Beetle, Species 23-10-1Samsung G955U, Android 9, Xi'an, China (23-10-1)
    • Flower Beetle, Species 23-2Samsung G955F, Android 9, Zurich, Switzerland (23-2)
      • Flower Beetle, Species 23-2-1Samsung G955F, Android 9, Zurich, Switzerland (23-2-1)
    • Flower Beetle, Species 23-3Samsung G955F, Android 9, Zurich, Switzerland (23-3)
      • Flower Beetle, Species 23-3-1Samsung G955F, Android 9, Zurich, Switzerland (23-3-1)
        • Flower Beetle, Species 23-3-1-1Samsung G955F, Android 9, Zurich, Switzerland (23-3-1-1)
        • Flower Beetle, Species 23-3-1-2Samsung G955F, Android 9, Zurich, Switzerland (23-3-1-2)
          • Flower Beetle, Species 23-3-1-2-1Samsung G780G, Android 13, São Paulo, Brazil (23-3-1-2-1)
        • Flower Beetle, Species 23-3-1-3Samsung G955F, Android 9, Zurich, Switzerland (23-3-1-3)
        • Flower Beetle, Species 23-3-1-4Samsung G950F, Android 9, São Paulo, Brazil (23-3-1-4)
          • Flower Beetle, Species 23-3-1-4-1Samsung G955F, Android 9, Lucerne, Switzerland (23-3-1-4-1)
            • Flower Beetle, Species 23-3-1-4-1-1Samsung P613, Android 14, Conway, United States (23-3-1-4-1-1)
      • Flower Beetle, Species 23-3-2Samsung A035M, Android 13, Campana, Argentina (23-3-2)
    • Flower Beetle, Species 23-5, Android 13, Ocotlan, Mexico (23-5)
      • Flower Beetle, Species 23-5-1Samsung G955F, Android 9, Berlin, Germany (23-5-1)
        • Flower Beetle, Species 23-5-1-1Samsung G955F, Android 9, Berlin, Germany (23-5-1-1)
        • Flower Beetle, Species 23-5-1-2Samsung G955F, Android 9, Lucerne, Switzerland (23-5-1-2)
    • Flower Beetle, Species 23-6, Android 14, Mossoró, Brazil (23-6)
      • Flower Beetle, Species 23-6-1Samsung G955F, Android 9, Lucerne, Switzerland (23-6-1)
        • Flower Beetle, Species 23-6-1-1Samsung G955F, Android 9, Lucerne, Switzerland (23-6-1-1)
          • Flower Beetle, Species 23-6-1-1-1Samsung G955F, Android 9, Lucerne, Switzerland (23-6-1-1-1)
    • Flower Beetle, Species 23-7Samsung G955F, Android 9, Schaffhausen, Switzerland (23-7)
      • Flower Beetle, Species 23-7-1Samsung G955U, Android 9, Basel, Switzerland (23-7-1)
      • Flower Beetle, Species 23-7-2Samsung G955F, Android 9, Lucerne, Switzerland (23-7-2)

Deciphering the Role of a Coleopteran Steering Muscle via Free Flight Stimulation

Sato et al., 2015. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.01.051
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(15)00083-4

Abstract

The coleopteran third axillary muscle, also known as the wing-folding muscle, which has been known to function in wing folding since the 19 th century, plays a key function in left-right steering. Sato et al. demonstrate graded and controlled turns by stimulating the muscle in free-flying insects using a miniature radio system.
  • Developed a miniature radio system to remotely stimulate free-flying insects
  • Graded and controlled turns in free-flying insects by electrical stimulation
  • Demonstrated the coleopteran third axillary muscle is tonically activated ipsilaterally during turns
Graphical Abstract
(A1 and A2) Overview of the miniature wireless muscular stimulator device (A1); Stimulator device mounted on a live beetle (A2). The device consisted of a custom printed circuit board (PCB) on which a microcontroller, battery with a pair of thin wires, and connector were mounted (see also Figures S4A and S4B). Four silver wires (127 μm diameter bare, 178 μm diameter Teflon coated) were tightly inserted into the headers, which were mounted on the PCB and electrically connected to the outputs of the micro-processing unit (MPU). The other terminals of the wires were implanted into the left and right wing-folding muscles (3Ax muscle, working electrodes) and the mesothorax center hemolymph (counter electrodes).
(B1 and B2) Lateral view of a beetle (B1); close-up view of the red square domain of (B1) after dissection of a cuticle (B2), showing the flight muscle of 3Ax muscle (see also Figure S1). Top view of a beetle after the left elytra was removed and the hind wing was unfolded (B1), exposing the left wing base indicated by the red square.
(C1 and C2) Close-up view of the red square domain of (C1) to show the 3rd axillary sclerite (3Ax) (C2) that was internally and directly connected to the 3Ax muscle and externally connected to the wing base via a tendon.