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

• tested insects showed a strong reduction of the maximum traction force on all waxy plant surfaces compared to the reference experiment on glass (gl1). After beetles have walked on waxy plant substrates, their adhesive pads were contaminated with wax material, however, to different extents depending on

• the plant species. The insects demonstrated significantly lower values of both the maximum traction force and the first peak of the traction force and needed significantly longer time to reach the maximum force value in the gl2 test than in the gl1 test. These effects were especially pronounced in

• 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

Polarity in cuticular ridge development and insect attachment on leaf surfaces of Schismatoglottis calyptrata (Araceae)

• Venkata A. Surapaneni,
• Tobias Aust,
• Thomas Speck and
• Marc Thielen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 1326–1338, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.98

• 23.8 ± 0.4 °C and humidity of 41.5 ± 2.1% RH. Statistics The roughness, traction force and cell size data were analyzed using Kruskal–Wallis test followed by pairwise multiple comparisons using Dunn’s test adjusted with the Bonferroni correction. All statistical tests were performed using R software

A comparison of tarsal morphology and traction force in the two burying beetles Nicrophorus nepalensis and Nicrophorus vespilloides (Coleoptera, Silphidae)

• Liesa Schnee,
• Benjamin Sampalla,
• Josef K. Müller and
• Oliver Betz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 47–61, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.5

• attachment with respect to various surface properties was investigated by using a 2 × 3 experimental design. Traction force was measured for two different surface energies (hydrophilic vs hydrophobic) varying in roughness from smooth to micro-rough to rough. Nanotribometric tests on single legs were also

• performed. The external morphology of the attachment devices investigated by scanning electron microscopy suggested higher intra-specific (intersexual) than inter-specific differences. Whereas differences between the two species in traction force were high on smooth surfaces, no differences could be

• traction force measurements of entire animals, whereas the performance of single fore tarsi has been measured with a nanotribometer. Both the number and the special morphology of the tarsal tenent hairs of the fore, middle and hind tarsi have been investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The

Surface roughness rather than surface chemistry essentially affects insect adhesion

• Matt W. England,
• Tomoya Sato,
• Makoto Yagihashi,
• Atsushi Hozumi,
• Stanislav N. Gorb and
• Elena V. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1471–1479, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.139

• of surface, each with different chemical and topographical properties. The results of traction force tests clearly demonstrated that chemical surface properties, such as static/dynamic de-wettability of water and oil caused by specific chemical compositions, had no significant effect on the

• pronounced reduction. Prüm et al. [17] measured the traction force of the beetle Leptinotarsa decemlineata on different plant surfaces and their artificial replicas, and reported that surface roughness exerted a strong influence on attachment, whereas surface chemistry was found to have no significant

• different surface chemical and physical properties, (see above)) were measured. Obtained force–time curves were used to estimate the maximal traction force. Experiments were performed at 23 °C temperature and 26–29% relative humidity. We tested 10 male and 10 females and carried out 160 traction tests in

Influence of ambient humidity on the attachment ability of ladybird beetles (Coccinella septempunctata)

• Lars Heepe,
• Jonas O. Wolff and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1322–1329, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.123

• atmosphere Traction force experiments were performed in a polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) chamber (30 × 14 × 14 cm) in which relative humidity could be manipulated by the controlled mixture of dry and wetted air (Figure 2, for details see [14]). For this experiment, three levels of relative humidity (RH) were

• traction force is dependent on the attachment ability of the pulling animal. This method has been used in previous studies [7][14][40]. We let the beetle pull for one minute and then repeated the experiment in a second run, to make sure that the performance of individual animals was stable. In total, 10

• (H–J) indicate distal direction. Scale bars in (B–D, H–J), 100 µm. Scale bars in (E–G, K), 10 µm. Schematic of the experimental setup used for traction force experiments under controlled ambient humidities. Tethered beetles were connected to a force sensor by a 15–20 cm long human hair. Humidity was

Insect attachment on crystalline bioinspired wax surfaces formed by alkanes of varying chain lengths

• Elena Gorb,
• Sandro Böhm,
• Nadine Jacky,
• Louis-Philippe Maier,
• Kirstin Dening,
• Sasha Pechook,
• Boaz Pokroy and
• Stanislav Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1031–1041, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.116

• attachment and higher pull-off forces of polydimethylsiloxane probes on wax surfaces having a higher density of wax coverage, created by smaller crystals. Keywords: Coccinella septempunctata; insect–plant interactions; plant waxes; pull-off force; traction force; Introduction During their locomotion

• non-significant (Table 4). Correlations between forces and different wax surface parameters (crystal length, crystal thickness, density of crystals, mean roughness, and root mean square of roughness) were examined. We found a significant positive correlation between the traction force and crystal

• the studied substrates were lacking surface structures suitable for claw interlocking (larger than 4 μm according to [1]), we assume that insect attachment relied solely on the performance of adhesive pads. Traction force tests demonstrated a great reduction in beetle attachment on microstructured

Impact of cell shape in hierarchically structured plant surfaces on the attachment of male Colorado potato beetles (Leptinotarsa decemlineata)

• Bettina Prüm,
• Robin Seidel,
• Holger Florian Bohn and
• Thomas Speck

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 57–64, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.7

• or papillate cells enhancing attachment and both wax crystals or cuticular folds reducing attachment. However, the overall magnitude of traction force mainly depends on the presence or absence of superimposed microstructuring. Keywords: cuticular folds; epicuticular wax crystals; insect–plant

• covered only with films of wax. For plant surfaces covered only with films of wax, there was a significant increase in traction force when comparing convex to tabular epidermal cells (i+o (n = 8), ii+o (n = 8), p = 0.03). Between surfaces showing convex and papillate cells no further increase in traction

• structure, either by wax crystals or by cuticular folds, the differences in traction force between cells of different shape were more pronounced, although significantly lower in absolute value than for plant surfaces covered only with films of wax. For plant surfaces covered with wax crystals, there was a

The effect of surface anisotropy in the slippery zone of Nepenthes alata pitchers on beetle attachment

• Elena V. Gorb and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 302–310, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.35

• downward pitcher direction, since, in this direction, they could interlock with overhanging edges of lunate cells. Keywords: adhesive pads; claws; Coccinella septempunctata; insect–plant interactions; traction force; Introduction Pitcher-shaped trapping organs produced at the tips of tendrils are

• consistent with the results of previous authors and also show drastically decreased traction force on wax-bearing surfaces compared to those measured on smooth glass. The decrease of insect attachment ability on the waxy pitcher surface can be explained by contamination of adhesive pads with wax crystals [1

• from digital images (Figure 3) using SigmaScan Pro 5 software according to [39]. Traction experiments Traction force measurements were performed with both male and female beetles (see [30] for a detailed method description). Two types of experiments were carried out with tethered beetles on