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Research Article
Gluing the ‘unwettable’: soil-dwelling harvestmen use viscoelastic fluids for capturing springtails
Jonas O. Wolff, Axel L. Schönhofer, Clemens F. Schaber, Stanislav N. Gorb
Journal of Experimental Biology 2014 217: 3535-3544; doi: 10.1242/jeb.108852
Jonas O. Wolff
1Department of Functional Morphology and Biomechanics, University of Kiel, Am Botanischen Garten 1-9, D-24098 Kiel, Germany
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  • For correspondence: jwolff@zoologie.uni-kiel.de
Axel L. Schönhofer
2Department of Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Zoology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Joh.-von-Müller-Weg 6, D-55128 Mainz, Germany
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Clemens F. Schaber
1Department of Functional Morphology and Biomechanics, University of Kiel, Am Botanischen Garten 1-9, D-24098 Kiel, Germany
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Stanislav N. Gorb
1Department of Functional Morphology and Biomechanics, University of Kiel, Am Botanischen Garten 1-9, D-24098 Kiel, Germany
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Abstract

Gluing can be a highly efficient mechanism of prey capture, as it should require less complex sensory–muscular feedback. Whereas it is well known in insects, this mechanism is much less studied in arachnids, except spiders. Soil-dwelling harvestmen (Opiliones, Nemastomatidae) bear drumstick-like glandular hairs (clavate setae) at their pedipalps, which were previously hypothesized to be sticky and used in prey capture. However, clear evidence for this was lacking to date. Using high-speed videography, we found that the harvestman Mitostoma chrysomelas was able to capture fast-moving springtails (Collembola) just by a slight touch of the pedipalp. Adhesion of single clavate setae increased proportionally with pull-off velocity, from 1 μN at 1 μm s−1 up to 7 μN at 1 mm s−1, which corresponds to the typical weight of springtails. Stretched glue droplets exhibited characteristics of a viscoelastic fluid forming beads-on-a-string morphology over time, similar to spider capture threads and the sticky tentacles of carnivorous plants. These analogies indicate that viscoelasticity is a highly efficient mechanism for prey capture, as it holds stronger the faster the struggling prey moves. Cryo-scanning electron microscopy of snap-frozen harvestmen with glued springtails revealed that the gluey secretions have a high affinity to wet the microstructured cuticle of collembolans, which was previously reported to be barely wettable for both polar and non-polar liquids. Glue droplets can be contaminated with the detached scaly setae of collembolans, which may represent a counter-adaptation against entrapment by the glue, similar to the scaly surfaces of Lepidoptera and Trichoptera (Insecta) facilitating escape from spider webs.

FOOTNOTES

  • Author contributions

    J.O.W. and C.F.S. conceived and designed the experiments. J.O.W. performed the experiments and analyzed the data. J.O.W., A.L.S., C.F.S. and S.N.G. wrote the paper.

  • Competing interests

    The authors declare no competing financial interests.

  • Funding

    This work was supported by the German National Merit Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes) to J.O.W.

  • © 2014. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd
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Keywords

  • Adhesion
  • Tensile test
  • Wetting
  • Microstructure
  • Opiliones
  • Collembola

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Research Article
Gluing the ‘unwettable’: soil-dwelling harvestmen use viscoelastic fluids for capturing springtails
Jonas O. Wolff, Axel L. Schönhofer, Clemens F. Schaber, Stanislav N. Gorb
Journal of Experimental Biology 2014 217: 3535-3544; doi: 10.1242/jeb.108852
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Research Article
Gluing the ‘unwettable’: soil-dwelling harvestmen use viscoelastic fluids for capturing springtails
Jonas O. Wolff, Axel L. Schönhofer, Clemens F. Schaber, Stanislav N. Gorb
Journal of Experimental Biology 2014 217: 3535-3544; doi: 10.1242/jeb.108852

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