Extreme suction attachment performance from specialised insects living in mountain streams (Diptera: Blephariceridae)

Kang, Victor; White, Robin; Chen, Simon; Federle, Walter

doi:10.7554/elife.63250

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…While it might be often more challenging for benthic animals to deal with lift than with drag (Statzner and Holm 1982), very little is known about how benthic stream insects are adapted to deal with lift. In general, there are two main strategies of morphological adaptations to deal with currents: (1) benthic stream animals are often equipped with strong attachment devices helping them stay in place (Hora 1936;Hynes 1970;Ditsche and Summers 2014;Kang et al 2021); (2) drag and lift, which act to dislodge the animal, can be affected by the animal's body shape, and potentially reduced by the animal (Vogel 1994;Ditsche and Summers 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrofoil-like legs help stream mayfly larvae to stay on the ground

et al. 2023

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Adaptations to flow have already been in the focus of early stream research, but till today morphological adaptations of stream insects are hardly understood. While most previous stream research focused on drag, the effects of lift on ground-living stream insects have been often overlooked. Stream mayfly larvae Ecdyonurus sp. graze on algae on top of the stones and therefore inhabit current exposed places in streams. They have a dorso-ventrally flattened body shape, which is known to reduce drag. However, this body shape enhances lift too, increasing the danger for the animal of getting detached from the substrate. Using microscopic techniques, 3D-printing, and drag and lift measurements in a wind tunnel, our experiments show that the widened femora of Ecdyonurus sp. can generate negative lift, contributing to counterbalance the (positive) lift of the overall body shape. The larvae can actively regulate the amount of lift by adjusting the femur’s tilt or optimizing the distance to the ground. This shows that morphological adaptations of benthic stream insects can be very elaborate and can reach far beyond adaptations of the overall body shape. In the presented case, Ecdyonurus sp. takes advantage of the flow to overcome the flow’s challenges.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrofoil-like legs help stream mayfly larvae to stay on the ground

et al. 2023

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“…Many biological suction discs are able to attach to a wide range of substrates, varying from soft and slimy surfaces to rigid and rough rocks [21,23]. Examples of animals with such powerful suction discs are clingfish, octopods, aquatic insect larvae and starfish [23][24][25][26][27][28] (figure 2). The process of attachment and detachment can be quite dynamic, with some gobiidae fish able to climb the vertical cliffs of waterfalls using a pelvic-fin-derived suction disc [29].…”

Section: Inspiration From Biological Suction Discsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whereas the regular man-made suction disc generally contains a smooth contact surface (figure 3(e)), the contact surface of an octopod suction disc reveals microstructures (figure 3(f)) [22,32]. These microstructures are also identified on suction discs of a number of other animal classes like decapods [20,46], clingfish [21,23,24,40], remoras [47,48], lumpsuckers [41], river loaches [31], catfish [49][50][51][52], blepharicerid larvae [25,53] and parasites [54]. They can appear as rigid hooks that extend from the skeleton, or flexible structures that extend from the epidermis [23,24,40,47,54].…”

Section: Grip Generationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A bio-inspired expandable soft suction gripper for minimal invasive surgery—an explorative design study

et al. 2023

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Gripping slippery and flexible tissues during Minimal Invasive Surgery is often challenging using a conventional tissue gripper. A force grip has to compensate for the low friction coefficient between the gripper's jaws and the tissue surface. This study focuses on the development of a suction gripper. This device applies a pressure difference to grip the target tissue without the need to enclose it. Inspiration is taken from biological suction discs, as these are able to attach to a wide variety of substrates, varying from soft and slimy surfaces to rigid and rough rocks. Our bio-inspired suction gripper is divided into two main parts: 1) the suction chamber inside the handle where vacuum pressure is generated, and 2) the suction tip that attaches to the target tissue. The suction gripper fits through a trocar with 10 mm diameter and unfolds in a larger suction surface when being extracted. The suction tip is structured in a layered manner. The tip integrates five functions in separate layers to allow for safe and effective tissue handling: 1) Foldability, 2) Air-tightness, 3) Slideability, 4) Friction magnification and 5) Seal generation. The contact surface of the tip creates an air-tight seal with the tissue and enhances frictional support. The suction tip's shape grip allows for the gripping of small tissue pieces and enhances its resistance against shear forces. The experiments illustrated that our suction gripper outperforms man-made suction discs, as well as currently described suction grippers in literature in terms of attachment force (5.95 ± 0.52 N on muscle tissue) and substrate versatility. Our bio-inspired suction gripper offers the opportunity for a safer alternative to the conventional tissue gripper in Minimal Invasive Surgery.

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“…In arthropods, suction organs are found in two disparate families: net-winged midges (Blephariceridae) and diving beetles (Dytiscidae). Blepharicerid larvae are found in fast-flowing alpine streams and each larva uses six specialized suction organs to attach to rock surfaces (Rietschel 1961;Kang et al 2019;Kang et al 2021). These suction organs bear a striking resemblance to coleoid suckers, with a circular attachment disc, a sealing rim, and a central piston controlled by muscles that lower the pressure upon retraction.…”

Section: Figure 2 Phylogenetic Distribution Of Metazoans That Use Suc...mentioning

confidence: 99%

<strong></strong>Convergent Evolution of Attachment Mechanisms in Aquatic Animals

Delroisse¹,

Kang²,

Gouveneaux³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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To resist hydrodynamic forces, two main underwater attachment strategies have evolved multiple times in aquatic animals: glue-like “bioadhesive secretions” and pressure-driven “suction attachment”. In this review, we use a multi-level approach to highlight convergence in underwater attachment mechanisms across four different length-scales (organism, organ, microscopic and molecular). At the organism level, the ability to attach may serve a variety of functions, the most important being: (i) positional maintenance, (ii) locomotion, (iii) feeding, (iv) building, and (v) defense. Aquatic species that use bioadhesive secretions have been identified in 28 metazoan phyla out of the 34 currently described, while suction organs have a more restricted distribution and have been identified in five phyla. Although biological adhesives are highly diverse, it is possible to categorize them into four main types according to the time scale of operation: permanent, temporary, transitory, and instantaneous adhesion. At the organ level some common principles have evolved independently in different biological lineages: for example, animals with single-unit attachment organs can be distinguished from those with multi-unit organs. Fundamental design elements can also be recognized for both types of attachment mechanisms. Suction attachment systems comprise a circular or elliptical attachment disc, a sealing rim to prevent leakage and a mechanism to lower the internal pressure. Bioadhesive-producing organs, on the other hand, usually contain a glandular tissue associated with connective tissues or other types of load-bearing support structures and muscles that facilitate locomotion or mechanical detachment. At the microscopic level, similar designs and organizations appear once again to have emerged independently in different phylogenetic lineages. Independent of the taxon and type of adhesion, there are species in which the biosynthesis, packaging and release of adhesive secretions takes place at the level of a single type of secretory cell, whereas in others these secretions are produced by two or more secretory cell types. Duo-gland adhesive systems involved in temporary adhesion present an additional level of complexity as they also exhibit de-adhesive secretory cells. Yet, strikingly similar cellular organizations have been reported in highly disparate species. In the case of biological suction organs, regions of the organ that contact the substratum are highly textured with stiff microstructures. Although clearly non-homologous in different animals, these microstructures are thought to enhance friction on rough surfaces. At the molecular level, proteins are the main organic constituent of adhesive secretions in aquatic animals. We compared the global amino acid compositions of bioadhesives using principal component analysis to show that homologous adhesives from phylogenetically related species cluster together, and there is little overlap between taxonomic groups. However, several non-permanent adhesives are grouped together even though they belong to disparate phyla, indicating convergence in amino acid composition. We also investigated relatedness among individual adhesive proteins using a sequence similarity-based clustering analysis. While many proteins appear taxon-specific, some have clear sequence homologies based on shared protein domains between phylogenetically distant organisms. However, it is highly probable that these domains, which are also present in many non-adhesive proteins, were convergently acquired from ancestral proteins with unrelated general functions. We herein present morphological, structural, and molecular convergences between different attachment mechanisms in aquatic animals that likely arose in response to shared functional and selective pressures.

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Extreme suction attachment performance from specialised insects living in mountain streams (Diptera: Blephariceridae)

Cited by 9 publications

References 51 publications

Hydrofoil-like legs help stream mayfly larvae to stay on the ground

Hydrofoil-like legs help stream mayfly larvae to stay on the ground

A bio-inspired expandable soft suction gripper for minimal invasive surgery—an explorative design study

<strong></strong>Convergent Evolution of Attachment Mechanisms in Aquatic Animals

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