ArticleeLife2021
Extreme suction attachment performance from specialised insects living in mountain streams (Diptera: Blephariceridae).
Article in eLife, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Self-modifying percolation governs detachment in soft suction wet adhesion.Science advances · 2026Article
- Bionic Modeling Study on the Landing Mechanism of Flapping Wing Robot Based on the Thoracic Legs of Purple Stem Beetle,Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Attachment performance of the ectoparasitic seal louse Echinophthirius horridus.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Hydrofoil-like legs help stream mayfly larvae to stay on the ground.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2023Article
- Convergent Evolution of Adhesive Properties in Leaf Insect Eggs and Plant Seeds: Cross-Kingdom Bioinspiration.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Attachment of bioinspired microfibrils in fluids: transition from a hydrodynamic to hydrostatic mechanism.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2022Article
- Article
- Wetting of the tarsal adhesive fluid determines underwater adhesion in ladybird beetles.The Journal of experimental biology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Suction is widely used by animals for strong controllable underwater adhesion but is less well understood than adhesion of terrestrial climbing animals. Here we investigate the attachment of aquatic insect larvae (Blephariceridae), which cling to rocks in torrential streams using the only known muscle-actuated suction organs in insects. We measured their attachment forces on well-defined rough substrates and found that their adhesion was less reduced by micro-roughness than that of terrestrial climbing insects. In vivo visualisation of the suction organs in contact with microstructured substrates revealed that they can mould around large asperities to form a seal. We have shown that the ventral surface of the suction disc is covered by dense arrays of microtrichia, which are stiff spine-like cuticular structures that only make tip contact. Our results demonstrate the impressive performance and versatility of blepharicerid suction organs and highlight their potential as a study system to explore biological suction mechanisms.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.