Fibrillar adhesion with no clusterisation: Functional significance of material gradient along adhesive setae of insects

It has been recently demonstrated that adhesive tarsal setae of beetles possess material gradients along their length. These gradients presumably represent an evolutionary optimization enhancing the adaptation to rough surfaces while simultaneously preventing clusterisation of the setae by lateral collapse. The numerical experiment of the present study has clearly demonstrated that gradient-bearing fibers with short soft tips and stiff bases have greater advantage in maximizing adhesion and minimizing clusterisation in multiple attachment–detachment cycles, if compared to the fibers with longer soft tips on the stiff bases and fibers with stiff tips on the soft bases. This study not only manifests the crucial role of gradients in material properties along the setae in beetle fibrillar adhesive system, but predicts that similar gradients must have been convergently evolved in various lineages of arthropods.