The micro-scale study revealed how bristles on male beetles' legs attach to females. 百合空间

Tiny suckers on these bristles stick to the females' bodies. miewe

As well as shedding light on evolution at the very tiny scale, understanding this could inspire the design of devices for underwater attachment in engineering.

The results are published in the Royal Society journal Interface. 浪美心的blog

The team, led by Dr Kai-Jung Chi from National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan, directly measured the gripping force of the "attachment devices" on the leg bristles of two diving beetle species.

Microscopic images reveal that one of the species they studied - a more primitive insect - has a spatula-like attachment. ぶあすえ
Micrograph of diving beetle leg bristles Microscopic images revealed how primitive "spatula-shaped" bristles worked

The other has evolved circular suckers on the end of each leg bristle, which look like a microscopic plungers. ふすうぇじ

While these tiny plungers created a stronger attachment, the more primitive bristles had some sticky, aquatic secrets.

Tiny channels between the hairs in the more primitive beetle appear to produce a sort of glue.

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