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Why Flies Walk with Wet Feet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

Stephen W. Carmichael
Stephen W. Carmichael*
Affiliation:
Mayo Clinic
*
[email protected]

Extract

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Many animals can walk up vertical surfaces or even along the ceiling. And many studies have examined how flies accomplish this impressive task. Whereas these studies have revealed the anatomy of the contact area and there have been many assumptions about the fly attachment mechanism, the main elements that contribute to the attachment force were unknown. However, Mattias Langer, J. Peter Ruppersberg, and Stanislav Gorb have successfully demonstrated that the fluid secreted from the fly's feet is a critical factor in attaching the fly to the ceiling.

Type
Research Article
Information
Microscopy Today , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , January 2006 , pp. 3 - 7
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2006

Footnotes

1.

The author gratefully acknowledges Dr. Stanislav Gorb for reviewing this article.

References

2. Langer, M.G., Ruppersberg, J.P., and Gorb, S., Adhesion forces at the level of a terminal plate of the fly's seta, Proc. Royal Soc. Land. B 271:2209–2215, 2004.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed