Microfluidics Lab, Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium.
TIPs, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium.
J R Soc Interface. 2017 Nov;14(136). doi: 10.1098/rsif.2017.0493.
In this experimental study, living dock beetles are observed during their free upside-down walk on a smooth horizontal substrate. Their weight is balanced by the adhesion of hairy structures present on their tarsomeres. The motions involved in the attachment and detachment of these structures were characterized by simultaneously imaging the beetle from the side at the body scale, and from the top at the scale of a single tarsal chain. The observed multi-scale three-dimensional kinematics of the tarsi is qualitatively described, then quantified by image processing and physically modelled. A strong asymmetry is systematically observed between attachment and detachment kinematics, in terms of both timing and directionality.
在这项实验研究中，活体码头甲虫在光滑的水平基底上自由地倒着行走时，其足部跗节上的绒毛结构的附着和脱离运动被同时从体侧的生物尺度和单跗节链的顶部的尺度进行成像记录，以此来进行观察。实验对跗节的多尺度三维运动进行了定性描述，然后通过图像处理和物理建模进行了定量分析。观察到的附着和脱离运动的动力学在时间和方向上都存在明显的不对称性。
