Moisture harvesting and water transport through specialized micro-structures on the integument of lizards

• Philipp Comanns,
• Christian Effertz,
• Florian Hischen,
• Konrad Staudt,
• Wolfgang Böhme and
• Werner Baumgartner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 204–214, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.24

• . Within this capillary system the water is transported to the mouth where it is ingested. We have investigated three different lizard species which have developed the ability for moisture harvesting independently, viz. the Australian thorny devil (Moloch horridus), the Arabian toadhead agama

• directed to the mouth. Taken together we found that the micro ornamentation yields a superhydrophilic surface, and the semi-tubular capillaries allow for an efficient passive – and for Phrynosoma directed – transport of water. Keywords: capillary; horned lizard; rain harvesting; thorny devil; water

• : Phrynosomatinae) was extensively studied and described by [1]. However, other lizards such as the Australian thorny devil (Moloch horridus, Agamidae) lack such behavioural traits but nonetheless perform moisture harvesting in a successful way [2][3][4][5]. As well as Phrynosoma and Moloch [6][7][8], moisture