Insects are experts when it comes to adhesion on dry surfaces. However, in nature, plants may be covered by water for quite a long period of time, especially after rain. The bionic expert Professor Stanislav Gorb of Kiel University, Germany, and the material scientist Professor Naoe Hosoda of the National Institute for Material Science in Japan, discovered the remarkable ability of the terrestrial leaf beetle to walk underwater. Picking up the beetle’s locomotion mechanism, they designed an artificial material, which sticks to surfaces underwater.
The beetle walking under water (white arrows indicate trapped air bubbles).
Their scientific results are published August 8 in the online journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
“It was a productive collaboration with Naoe Hosoda,” states Gorb. “It is commonly known that adhesion between two solids in air can be produced with the help of water. Just like paper that sticks to table when it gets wet.” The liquid surface tension between air, liquids and solids is called capillary force. In order to stick to dry surfaces insects use such capillary forces with the aid of their oil-covered adhesive setae instead of water. Read more
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