Fun Fact #59: Meet the ultimate suction-bug (I would say spider-bug, but that's silly!). This little Hemisphaerota cyanea beetle has oversized end-of-leg sections (tarsi) with 60,000 adhesive bristles, each with two terminal pads. This means that when another bug comes along to eat it the beetle grips the surface that it is on really hard and doesn't let go. The attacker can't drag it away/turn it over so it doesn't get eaten.

Question

trancenova · Answer

In an experiment they attached weights to a hanging beetle, it could carry a whole 2g, yeah that might sound small, but this beetle weighs only around 13mg so 2g is over 150 times its body weight! How does it walk with extra sticky feet you ask? Well the bug can control how many of the bristles are contacting with the surface so when walking around they have minimal contact.

trancenova · Answer

Source: http://www.pnas.org/content/97/12/6568.full Hmm getting a bit behind on my fun facting aren't I? Ah well more to come :)

trancenova · Answer

Previous (Web Stealing Spiders): http://openstudy.com/users/trancenova/updates/4e9ac24b0b8ba77642ad0c3d

anonymous · Answer

can someone please help me answer my question?

trancenova · Answer

hey bigbird, sorry I would have answered it but I don't know the answer..

anonymous · Answer

:( oh ok. you a student?

trancenova · Answer

yep, I'll go grab one of my books and see if that says :)

anonymous · Answer

thanks you from australia?

trancenova · Answer

Yep :)

anonymous · Answer

cool vic?

anonymous · Answer

Even ants can carry around 300 times their body weight right? They are one of the strongest insects.

trancenova · Answer

Yeah, ants are strong bugs lol, though I doubt they can hang on that well!