Evidence for intermolecular forces involved in ladybird beetle tarsal setae adhesion

Bioengineering Evidence that Ladybird Beetle Adhesion Fluid Adapts to Changing Surface Chemistry

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

Many insects possess adhesive foot pads, which enable them to scale smooth vertical surfaces. The function of these organs may be highly affected by environmental conditions. Ladybird beetles (Coccinellidae) possess dense tarsal soles of tenent setae, supplemented with an adhesive fluid. We studied the attachment ability of the seven-spotted ladybird beetle (Coccinella septempunctata) at differ...

Intermolecular forces.

The nature of molecular interactions is examined. Intermolecular forces are divided into long-range and short-range components; the former operate at distances where the effects of electron exchange are negligible and decrease as an inverse power of the separation. The long-range interactions may be subdividied into electrostatic, induction and dispersion contributions, where the electrostatic ...

Evidence for self-cleaning in gecko setae.

A tokay gecko can cling to virtually any surface and support its body mass with a single toe by using the millions of keratinous setae on its toe pads. Each seta branches into hundreds of 200-nm spatulae that make intimate contact with a variety of surface profiles. We showed previously that the combined surface area of billions of spatulae maximizes van der Waals interactions to generate large...

Condition-dependent ejaculate size and composition in a ladybird beetle.

Sexually selected male ejaculate traits are expected to depend on the resource state of males. Theory predicts that males in good condition will produce larger ejaculates, but that ejaculate composition will depend on the relative production costs of ejaculate components and the risk of sperm competition experienced by low- and high-condition males. Under some conditions, when low condition lea...