Insect attachment on waxy plant surfaces: the effect of pad contamination by different waxes

• Elena V. Gorb and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 385–395, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.35

• contamination of insect adhesive pads with three-dimensional epicuticular waxes of different plant species contributes to the reduction of insect attachment. We measured traction forces of tethered Chrysolina fastuosa male beetles having hairy adhesive pads on nine wax-bearing plant surfaces differing in both

• experimentally supports the contamination hypothesis. Keywords: adhesion; Chrysolina fastuosa; Chrysomelidae; Coleoptera; epicuticular wax projections; tenent setae; traction force; Introduction It has been shown in numerous experimental studies that insects possessing hairy adhesive pads (i.e., specialized

• Chrysolina fastuosa Scop. (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae) having hairy adhesive pads on various (among them twelve waxy) plant substrates have shown that Acer negundo L. (Aceraceae) stems reduced the further attachment ability of beetles for a certain amount of time, whereas other waxy plant surfaces either did