Directional takeoff, aerial righting, and adhesion landing of semiaquatic springtails.

ABSTRACT: Springtails (Collembola) have been traditionally portrayed as explosive jumpers with incipient directional takeoff and uncontrolled landing. However, for these collembolans that live near the water, such skills are crucial for evading a host of voracious aquatic and terrestrial predators. We discover that semiaquatic springtails, Isotomurus retardatus, can perform directional jumps, rapid aerial righting, and near-perfect landing on the water surface. They achieve these locomotive controls by adjusting their body attitude and impulse during takeoff, deforming their body in midair, and exploiting the hydrophilicity of their ventral tube, known as the collophore. Experiments and mathematical modeling indicate that directional-impulse control during takeoff is driven by the collophore'

SUBMITTER: Ortega-Jimenez VM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9674249 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature