ArticleBMC ecology and evolution2024
Diversity of attachment systems in heelwalkers (Mantophasmatodea) - highly specialized, but uniform.
Article in BMC ecology and evolution, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Cuticular Hydrocarbon Composition of Adhesive Secretions from Functionally Different Attachment Pads of the Stick Insect Medauroidea extradentata (Phasmatodea).Journal of chemical ecology · 2026Article
- Descending from trees: a Cretaceous winged ice-crawler illuminates the ecological shift and origin of Grylloblattidae.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
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3 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundHeelwalkers possess a highly modified tarsal attachment system. All extant species lift the distalmost tarsomere permanently off the substrate and primarily use their euplantulae for locomotion. The combination of a smooth adhesive pad (arolium) on the pretarsus and fibrillary attachment pads on the euplantulae offers valuable insights for translational approaches, but its infra-order diversity remains unexplored.
resultsWe explored the morphology of the tarsal attachment apparatus of Mantophasmatodea based on a representative taxon sampling spanning a large fraction of species of this group and compared morphological differences in the specialized morphology of this system across species and sexes. Our scanning electron microscope investigation of the tarsi of 11 species (52% of all described extant species) revealed an overall very consistent ground pattern and almost no specific adaptations. There are only minor, but mostly clade-specific differences in the shape of the adhesive setae on the tarsal euplantulae and in the morphology and density of the acanthae on the pretarsal arolium. Both features differ primarily between Austrophasmatidae in comparison to the remaining Mantophasmatodea taxa.
conclusionWe conclude that the strong specialization of the mantophasmatodean tarsal attachment sufficiently copes with the diversity of substrates the insects are exposed to.
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