Figure 1
From: Resilin microjoints: a smart design strategy to avoid failure in dragonfly wings
(A) Scanning electron micrograph of two cross veins connected to a longitudinal vein in the forewing of S. vulgatum. The vein joint located on the left-hand side of the figure contains a resilin patch (marked blue) at the contact area of the veins and a spike located on the cross vein. The joint on the right-hand side of the longitudinal vein has neither a spike nor a resilin patch. (B) Cross section of a vein joint of M. basilaris basilaris stained with toluidine blue (reconstructed with permission from ref. 13). The presence of resilin is illustrated by the sapphire or bright blue colour at the contact area of the longitudinal and cross veins and by the violet colour in the soft endocuticle. The hard cuticle has remained unstained, but due to sclerotization appears grey-brownish. lv, longitudinal vein; cv, cross vein; mm, membrane; rs, resilin; sp, spike; hc, hard cuticle; sc, soft cuticle. Scale bars: 10 μm.
