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

• 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

• (3D) epicuticular wax projections, insects usually fail to attach to [4][5][6]. The reducing effect of such plant surfaces on insect adhesion has been shown for many plant and insect species using various experimental approaches, from direct behavioral observations and simple inversion [7] or incline

• plant wax had a primary effect on the force reduction. Contaminability of insect pads by waxes of different plant species was visualized in an additional experiment. Results and Discussion Waxy plant surfaces The plant surfaces studied are densely covered by different types of epicuticular wax

Hierachical epicuticular wax coverage on leaves of Deschampsia antarctica as a possible adaptation to severe environmental conditions

• Elena V. Gorb,
• Iryna A. Kozeretska and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 807–816, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.71

• sites on the pedicel surface (Figure 5c, inset), whereas the glume surface shows regularly distributed, rounded/oval, relatively flat, sub-microscopic (length/diameter: 0.54 ± 0.14 μm) protrusions (Figure 5f). Both the pedicel and glume surfaces are lacking prominent epicuticular wax projections. For