Abstract
In order to study the effect of different substrate stiffness on the attachment ability of seven-spotted ladybird beetles Coccinella septempunctata, we have performed friction experiments with female and male beetles on smooth silicone elastomer substrates of different stiffness, using a centrifugal force tester. Experiments were performed with intact beetles and those without claws. In addition, males were also tested on washed substrates to exclude effects of unpolymerized residues on the substrates. The results of the centrifuge experiment revealed that the attachment ability of females was not affected by the substrate stiffness within the range of tested stiffness. Males, however, showed a decreasing attachment ability with decreasing substrate stiffness. We argue that this sexual dimorphism may be explained by the presence of a specialized, discoidal seta type in males, which is not present in females. This type of setae, when softer than the substrate, presumably exhibits a homogeneous, peak-free interfacial stress distribution, accompanied with high pull-off forces necessary to detach these setae from the substrate. When the substrate, however, becomes softer than the discoidal setae, the interfacial stress distribution will change and exhibit stress peaks at the edges of the contact. This, in fact, will lower the pull-off forces, in agreement with the experimental results. Surprisingly, the claws had almost no influence on the attachment ability of the beetles. The present study depicts, for the first time, the effect of substrate stiffness on the attachment ability in climbing animals, whose natural habitats provide a variety of substrate stiffness ranging from rigid rock surfaces to soft, biofilm covered substrates.
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Acknowledgements
This book chapter is based on the original publication L. Heepe, D. S. Petersen, L Tölle, J.O. Wolff, and S.N. Gorb, Sexual dimorphism in the attachment ability of the ladybird beetle C. septempunctata on soft substrates, Appl. Phys. A 123, 34 (2017), with permission of Springer. We thank J. Schnoor for providing high-speed observations of setae detachment and Titus Pelzl for assistance during force measurements. This work was partially supported by CARTRIB Project of The Leverhulme Trust (S. N. Gorb) by projects CP 1550 and 1623 by a grant of the Cluster of Excellence 80 The Future Ocean (L. Heepe and S. N. Gorb). The Future Ocean is funded within the framework of the Excellence Initiative by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) on behalf of the German federal and state governments. J.O. Wolff is funded by a Macquarie Research Fellowship of Macquarie University, Sydney.
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Heepe, L., Petersen, D.S., Tölle, L., Wolff, J.O., Gorb, S.N. (2017). Effect of Substrate Stiffness on the Attachment Ability in Ladybird Beetles Coccinella septempunctata . In: Heepe, L., Xue, L., Gorb, S. (eds) Bio-inspired Structured Adhesives. Biologically-Inspired Systems, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59114-8_4
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