  The occurrence of new textures of liquid crystals is an important factor in
tuning their optical and photonics properties. Here, we show, both
experimentally and by numerical computation, that under an electric field
chitin tactoids (i.e. nematic droplets) can stretch to aspect ratios of more
than 15, leading to a transition from a spindle-like to a cigar-like shape. We
argue that the large extensions occur because the elastic contribution to the
free energy is dominated by the anchoring. We demonstrate that the elongation
involves hydrodynamic flow and is reversible, the tactoids return to their
original shapes upon removing the field.
