QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online May 30, 2008
Journal of Experimental Biology 211, 1958-1963 (2008)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2008
doi: 10.1242/jeb.014308

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Eimüller, T. Articles by Gorb, S. N. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Eimüller, T. Articles by Gorb, S. N. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Terminal contact elements of insect attachment devices studied by transmission X-ray microscopy

T. Eimüller^1,2, P. Guttmann³ and S. N. Gorb^2,*

¹ Junior Research Group Magnetic Microscopy, Experimental Physics, University of Bochum, D-44780 Bochum, Germany
² Evolutionary Biomaterials Group, Department for Thin Films and Biological Systems, Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, Heisenbergstr. 3, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany
³ University of Göttingen c/o BESSY GmbH, Albert-Einstein-Str. 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: s.gorb{at}mf.mpg.de)

Accepted 20 March 2008

For the first time, the terminal elements (spatulae) of setal (hairy) attachment devices of the beetle Gastrophysa viridula (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae) and the fly Lucilia caesar (Diptera, Calliphoridae) were studied using transmission X-ray microscopy (TXM) with a lateral resolution of about 30 nm. Since images are taken under ambient conditions, we demonstrate here that this method can be applied to study the contact behaviour of biological systems, including animal tenent setae, in a fresh state. We observed that the attached spatulae show a viscoelastic behavior increasing the contact area and providing improved adaptability to the local topography of the surface. The technique can be extended to TXM tomography, which would provide three-dimensional information and a deeper insight into the details of insect attachment structures.

Key words: attachment, adhesion, beetle, Gastrophysa viridula, Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, fly, Lucilia caesar, Diptera, Calliphoridae, contact formation, transmission X-ray microscope, TXM

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. M. R. Bullock and W. Federle Division of labour and sex differences between fibrillar, tarsal adhesive pads in beetles: effective elastic modulus and attachment performance J. Exp. Biol., June 15, 2009; 212(12): 1876 - 1888. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				N. Gravish, M. Wilkinson, S. Sponberg, A. Parness, N. Esparza, D. Soto, T. Yamaguchi, M. Broide, M. Cutkosky, C. Creton, et al. Rate-dependent frictional adhesion in natural and synthetic gecko setae J R Soc Interface, June 3, 2009; (2009) rsif.2009.0133v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]