Underwater attachment using hairs: the functioning of spatula and sucker setae from male diving beetles

Males of Dytiscinae beetles use specialized adhesive setae to adhere to female elytra during underwater courtship. This coevolution of male setae and female elytra has attracted much attention since Darwin. However, there has been little examination of their biomechanical functioning despite increasing knowledge on biofibrillar adhesion. Here, we report and compare, for the first time, the mechanisms of underwater attachment using two hair types, the primitive spatula and derived 'passive' sucker, found in male diving beetles. Results from interspecific scaling of protarsal palettes and adhesion by single seta suggest better performance in the later-evolved circular (sucker) setae. Spatula setae with a modified shallow sucker and channels use the combined mechanisms of suction and viscous resistance for adhesion. Velocity-dependent adhesion provides sufficient control for resisting the female's erratic movements while also detaching easily through slow peeling. Direction-dependent shear resistance helps reorient setae surfaces into a preferred direction for effective adhesion. Seta deformation using different mechanisms for circular and spatula setae reduces the force that is transmitted to the contact interface. A softer spring in spatula setae explains their adhesion at lower preloads and assists in complete substrate contact. Attachment mechanisms revealed in adhesive setae with modified spatula and passive suckers provide insights for bioinspired designs of underwater attachment devices.

More than a safety line: jump-stabilizing silk of salticids

Salticids are diurnal hunters known for acute vision, remarkable predatory strategies and jumping ability. Like other jumpers, they strive for stability and smooth landings. Instead of using inertia from swinging appendages or aerodynamic forces by flapping wings as in other organisms, we show that salticids use a different mechanism for in-air stability by using dragline silk, which was previously believed to function solely as a safety line. Analyses from high-speed images of jumps by the salticid Hasarius adansoni demonstrate that despite being subject to rearward pitch at take-off, spiders with dragline silk can change body orientation in the air. Instantaneous drag and silk forces calculated from kinematic data further suggest a comparable contribution to deceleration and energy dissipation, and reveal that adjustments by the spider to the silk force can reverse its body pitch for a predictable and optimal landing. Without silk, upright-landing spiders would slip or even tumble, deferring completion of landing. Thus, for salticids, dragline silk is critical for dynamic stability and prey-capture efficiency. The dynamic functioning of dragline silk revealed in this study can advance the understanding of silk's physiological control over material properties and its significance to spider ecology and evolution, and also provide inspiration for future manoeuvrable robot designs.

Scaling and mechanics of carnivoran footpads reveal the principles of footpad design

In most mammals, footpads are what first strike ground with each stride. Their mechanical properties therefore inevitably affect functioning of the legs; yet interspecific studies of the scaling of locomotor mechanics have all but neglected the feet and their soft tissues. Here we determine how contact area and stiffness of footpads in digitigrade carnivorans scale with body mass in order to show how footpads' mechanical properties and size covary to maintain their functional integrity. As body mass increases across several orders of magnitude, we find the following: (i) foot contact area does not keep pace with increasing body mass; therefore pressure increases, placing footpad tissue of larger animals potentially at greater risk of damage; (ii) but stiffness of the pads also increases, so the tissues of larger animals must experience less strain; and (iii) total energy stored in hindpads increases slightly more than that in the forepads, allowing additional elastic energy to be returned for greater propulsive efficiency. Moreover, pad stiffness appears to be tuned across the size range to maintain loading regimes in the limbs that are favourable for long-bone remodelling. Thus, the structural properties of footpads, unlike other biological support-structures, scale interspecifically through changes in both geometry and material properties, rather than geometric proportions alone, and do so with consequences for both maintenance and operation of other components of the locomotor system.

Mechanical energy and effective foot mass during impact loading of walking and running

The human heel pad is considered an important structure for attenuation of the transient force caused by heel-strike. Although the mechanical properties of heel pads are relatively well understood, the mechanical energy (Etot) absorbed by the heel pad during the impact phase has never been documented directly because data on the effective foot mass (Meff) was previously unavailable during normal forward locomotion. In this study, we use the impulse-momentum method (IMM) for calculating Meff from moving subjects. Mass-spring-damper models were developed to evaluate errors and to examine the effects of pad property, upper body mass, and effective leg spring on Meff. We simultaneously collected ground reaction forces, pad deformation, and lower limb kinematics during impact phase of barefoot walking, running, and crouched walking. The latter was included to examine the effect of knee angle on Meff. The magnitude of Meff as a percentage of body mass (M(B)) varies with knee angle at impact and significantly differs among gaits: 6.3%M(B) in walking, 5.3%M(B) in running, and 3.7%M(B) in crouched walking. Our modeling results suggested that Meff is insensitive to heel pad resilience and effective leg stiffness. At the instant prior to heel strike, Etot ranges from 0.24 to 3.99 J. The combination of video and forceplate data used in this study allows analyses of Etot and Etot as a function of heel-strike kinematics during normal locomotion. Relationship between Meff and knee angle provides insights into how changes in posture moderate impact transients at different gaits.