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Reversible Underwater Adhesion: The Unique C-shaped Suckers of Net-winged Midge Larvae (Blepharicera sp.)
Aquatic insects living in fast-flowing streams have developed various types of attachment systems to resist being carried away by strong currents. Combinations of various attachment devices offer aquatic insects advantages in underwater adhesion on substrates with different surface properties. In th...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7286893/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32523030 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66268-3 |
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author | Liu, Guan-Lin Chang, Haw-Kai Chuang, Yung-Chieh Lin, Yu-Min Chen, Po-Yu |
author_facet | Liu, Guan-Lin Chang, Haw-Kai Chuang, Yung-Chieh Lin, Yu-Min Chen, Po-Yu |
author_sort | Liu, Guan-Lin |
collection | PubMed |
description | Aquatic insects living in fast-flowing streams have developed various types of attachment systems to resist being carried away by strong currents. Combinations of various attachment devices offer aquatic insects advantages in underwater adhesion on substrates with different surface properties. In this study, the net-winged midge (Blepharicera sp.) larvae were investigated to understand micro-/nano-structural attachment mechanisms. The hierarchical structure of insect adhesive surfaces was characterized using Optical Microscopy (OM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Centrifugal measurements were also conducted to measure the critical rotational velocity at which the larvae of Blepharicera sp. can adhere to substrates with varying roughness. Commercial suckers require smooth substrate surface to maintain a pressure that is lower than the surrounding pressure for adhesion under the sucker cup while the suckers of net-winged midge larvae possess hierarchical micro-/nano-structures, which attach closely to rough surfaces underwater. Furthermore, the functions of microstructures observed on the sucker, including wrinkled surface, inward setae, outer fibers, and nick were explored and may contribute to underwater adhesion. The aligned C-shaped suckers can attach and detach effectively by closing or opening the gap. The unique microstructure and adhesion capability of such suckers could shed light on the design and synthesis of novel bio-inspired devices for reversible underwater adhesion. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7286893 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-72868932020-06-15 Reversible Underwater Adhesion: The Unique C-shaped Suckers of Net-winged Midge Larvae (Blepharicera sp.) Liu, Guan-Lin Chang, Haw-Kai Chuang, Yung-Chieh Lin, Yu-Min Chen, Po-Yu Sci Rep Article Aquatic insects living in fast-flowing streams have developed various types of attachment systems to resist being carried away by strong currents. Combinations of various attachment devices offer aquatic insects advantages in underwater adhesion on substrates with different surface properties. In this study, the net-winged midge (Blepharicera sp.) larvae were investigated to understand micro-/nano-structural attachment mechanisms. The hierarchical structure of insect adhesive surfaces was characterized using Optical Microscopy (OM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Centrifugal measurements were also conducted to measure the critical rotational velocity at which the larvae of Blepharicera sp. can adhere to substrates with varying roughness. Commercial suckers require smooth substrate surface to maintain a pressure that is lower than the surrounding pressure for adhesion under the sucker cup while the suckers of net-winged midge larvae possess hierarchical micro-/nano-structures, which attach closely to rough surfaces underwater. Furthermore, the functions of microstructures observed on the sucker, including wrinkled surface, inward setae, outer fibers, and nick were explored and may contribute to underwater adhesion. The aligned C-shaped suckers can attach and detach effectively by closing or opening the gap. The unique microstructure and adhesion capability of such suckers could shed light on the design and synthesis of novel bio-inspired devices for reversible underwater adhesion. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-06-10 /pmc/articles/PMC7286893/ /pubmed/32523030 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66268-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Liu, Guan-Lin Chang, Haw-Kai Chuang, Yung-Chieh Lin, Yu-Min Chen, Po-Yu Reversible Underwater Adhesion: The Unique C-shaped Suckers of Net-winged Midge Larvae (Blepharicera sp.) |
title | Reversible Underwater Adhesion: The Unique C-shaped Suckers of Net-winged Midge Larvae (Blepharicera sp.) |
title_full | Reversible Underwater Adhesion: The Unique C-shaped Suckers of Net-winged Midge Larvae (Blepharicera sp.) |
title_fullStr | Reversible Underwater Adhesion: The Unique C-shaped Suckers of Net-winged Midge Larvae (Blepharicera sp.) |
title_full_unstemmed | Reversible Underwater Adhesion: The Unique C-shaped Suckers of Net-winged Midge Larvae (Blepharicera sp.) |
title_short | Reversible Underwater Adhesion: The Unique C-shaped Suckers of Net-winged Midge Larvae (Blepharicera sp.) |
title_sort | reversible underwater adhesion: the unique c-shaped suckers of net-winged midge larvae (blepharicera sp.) |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7286893/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32523030 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66268-3 |
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