Sex-related effects in the superhydrophobic properties of damselfly wings in young and old Calopteryx splendens.

Numerous sex-related morphological adaptations are connected to reproductive behavior in animals. For example, females of some insect species can submerge during oviposition, which may lead to sex-related adaptations in the hydrophobicity (water-repellency) due to specialization of certain morpholog...

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Autores principales:	Katja Kuitunen, Alexander Kovalev, Stanislav N Gorb
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/a5c06f48b0934bceb4b24ab3e5320545
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:a5c06f48b0934bceb4b24ab3e53205452021-11-18T08:33:06ZSex-related effects in the superhydrophobic properties of damselfly wings in young and old Calopteryx splendens.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0088627https://doaj.org/article/a5c06f48b0934bceb4b24ab3e53205452014-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24520406/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Numerous sex-related morphological adaptations are connected to reproductive behavior in animals. For example, females of some insect species can submerge during oviposition, which may lead to sex-related adaptations in the hydrophobicity (water-repellency) due to specialization of certain morphological structures. On the other hand, ageing can cause changes in hydrophobicity of the surface, because the morphological structures can wear with age. Here, we investigated sex-and age-related differences in wing hydrophobicity and in morphology (spine density, wax cover characteristics, size of females' pseudopterostigma) potentially related to hydrophobicity of Calopteryx splendens damselflies. Hydrophobicity was measured with two methods, by measuring the contact angle (CA) between a wing and water droplet, and by dipping a wing into water and measuring forces needed to submerge, withdraw, and pull-out a wing from water. We found that C. splendens wings are superhydrophobic, having mean CAs of 161°. The only sex and age related difference in the hydrophobicity measurements was that young females had stronger amplitude of force fluctuations during withdrawal of wings from water than young males. This suggests that young females may form less uniform air pockets on their wings while submerged. From the morphological structures measured here, the only sex related finding was that old females had denser spine cover than young females in their wing veins. The difference may be explained by better survival of females with denser spine cover. The most important morphological character that predicted superhydrophobicity was the prevalence of long wax rods on wing veins. In addition, female pseudopterostigma area (a trait present only in females) was negatively related to pull-out force, suggesting that large pseudopterostigmas might help females to emerge from water following oviposition. The subtle sex-related differences in hydrophobicity could be explained by the fact that both sexes must resist rain, and males are occasionally in contact with water.Katja KuitunenAlexander KovalevStanislav N GorbPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 2, p e88627 (2014)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Katja Kuitunen Alexander Kovalev Stanislav N Gorb Sex-related effects in the superhydrophobic properties of damselfly wings in young and old Calopteryx splendens.
description	Numerous sex-related morphological adaptations are connected to reproductive behavior in animals. For example, females of some insect species can submerge during oviposition, which may lead to sex-related adaptations in the hydrophobicity (water-repellency) due to specialization of certain morphological structures. On the other hand, ageing can cause changes in hydrophobicity of the surface, because the morphological structures can wear with age. Here, we investigated sex-and age-related differences in wing hydrophobicity and in morphology (spine density, wax cover characteristics, size of females' pseudopterostigma) potentially related to hydrophobicity of Calopteryx splendens damselflies. Hydrophobicity was measured with two methods, by measuring the contact angle (CA) between a wing and water droplet, and by dipping a wing into water and measuring forces needed to submerge, withdraw, and pull-out a wing from water. We found that C. splendens wings are superhydrophobic, having mean CAs of 161°. The only sex and age related difference in the hydrophobicity measurements was that young females had stronger amplitude of force fluctuations during withdrawal of wings from water than young males. This suggests that young females may form less uniform air pockets on their wings while submerged. From the morphological structures measured here, the only sex related finding was that old females had denser spine cover than young females in their wing veins. The difference may be explained by better survival of females with denser spine cover. The most important morphological character that predicted superhydrophobicity was the prevalence of long wax rods on wing veins. In addition, female pseudopterostigma area (a trait present only in females) was negatively related to pull-out force, suggesting that large pseudopterostigmas might help females to emerge from water following oviposition. The subtle sex-related differences in hydrophobicity could be explained by the fact that both sexes must resist rain, and males are occasionally in contact with water.
format	article
author	Katja Kuitunen Alexander Kovalev Stanislav N Gorb
author_facet	Katja Kuitunen Alexander Kovalev Stanislav N Gorb
author_sort	Katja Kuitunen
title	Sex-related effects in the superhydrophobic properties of damselfly wings in young and old Calopteryx splendens.
title_short	Sex-related effects in the superhydrophobic properties of damselfly wings in young and old Calopteryx splendens.
title_full	Sex-related effects in the superhydrophobic properties of damselfly wings in young and old Calopteryx splendens.
title_fullStr	Sex-related effects in the superhydrophobic properties of damselfly wings in young and old Calopteryx splendens.
title_full_unstemmed	Sex-related effects in the superhydrophobic properties of damselfly wings in young and old Calopteryx splendens.
title_sort	sex-related effects in the superhydrophobic properties of damselfly wings in young and old calopteryx splendens.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2014
url	https://doaj.org/article/a5c06f48b0934bceb4b24ab3e5320545
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Sex-related effects in the superhydrophobic properties of damselfly wings in young and old Calopteryx splendens.

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