Fig. 2.

Hummingbird tongue trapping nectar. (A) Dorsal view of a post mortem tongue tip (A. colubris) leaving nectar, from totally immersed (Top photograph) at 0 milliseconds (ms), to outside the liquid (Bottom photograph). Green arrows mark the same reference point on the tongue in each image. (B) Cross-sectional diagrams (right margin) indicate the changes in position of lamellae at the reference point over time. From top to bottom: inside rotation of the entire structure (blue and red colors represent portions of visible lamellae along each side of the rod), tongue tips joining, and lamellae closing. In the first two diagrams, lamellae are inside the nectar; in the last two, lamellae have been withdrawn but contain nectar trapped inside the grooves. Scale bars, 0.5 mm.