Similar to the sticky dew of carnivorous plant , daddy stilt farm a death - lying in wait made of glue right near their oral cavity . The gluey mobile behaves like cornstarch in water : The more the prey sputter , the stronger the glue holds . Theworkwas published in theJournal of Experimental Biologylast week .
These lank - limbed , soil - domicile arachnid – also roll in the hay by another rad nickname , harvestmen – have drumstick - shaped hairs on their pedipalps , short branch - like appendage attached to their heads used to head solid food to their mouths . The small glandular pedipalp hairs , called clavate setae , appear to be coated with tiny droplets at their tips ( see photo above ) . Researchers speculate that these construction might be sticky and used to capture prey . “ It reminded me of a carnivorous plant , thesundew , which uses sticky tentacles to capture insects,”saysJonas Wolff from the University of Kiel in Germany .
Using high - velocity video cameras , Wolff ’s team observed 38 example of a harvestman species calledMitostoma chrysomelascapturing fast , nervy bugs called springtails with just a slight skin senses of their pedipalps . With the help of the sticky secretion , the harvestmen attacked springtails much bounteous than themselves – and they were successful at least half of the time . you could take in some of the videoshere .
springtail have a special jump electronic organ called the furca that works like a spring . When they ’re seek to lam , these worm render high personnel , but dada longlegs are able to take in the collisions . “ On high - speed video recording , you could see that the harvestman turn like a wobbly wire ball buffering the impregnable impacts,”Wolff tells Inside JEB .
Then the squad test the adhesive properties of the secretions . Using a midget setup lie of glassful pipette top with a microscopical deoxyephedrine bead at the end ( as a military unit sensor ) , the researchers were able-bodied to pull on a undivided pedipalp hair . The adhesion of undivided hair , they retrieve , increased proportionally with pull up - off speed , and the adhesive force could hold back the body weight unit of a typical springtail . In other word , the faster a fight springtail moves , the strong the droplet ’s adherence military unit .
" This show that the secernment is a non - Newtonian fluid,”Wolff suppose . Unlike most fluid , Science explains , the mucilage becomes more viscid when subject to a sudden force . “ It behaves like a solid under gamey impact , likecornstarch result . ” The more the prey attempt to escape , the more stuck it let .
