Superhydrophobic diving flies (Ephydra hians) and the hypersaline waters of Mono Lake.

ABSTRACT: The remarkable alkali fly, Ephydra hians, deliberately crawls into the alkaline waters of Mono Lake to feed and lay eggs. These diving flies are protected by an air bubble that forms around their superhydrophobic cuticle upon entering the lake. To study the physical mechanisms underlying this process we measured the work required for flies to enter and leave various aqueous solutions. Our measurements show that it is more difficult for the flies to escape from Mono Lake water than from fresh water, due to the high concentration of Na₂CO₃ which causes water to penetrate and thus wet their setose cuticle. Other less kosmotropic salts do not have this effect, suggesting that the phenomenon is governed by Hofmeister effects as well as specific interactions between

SUBMITTER: van Breugel F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5754803 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature