Journal
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY INTERFACE
Volume 10, Issue 87, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2013.0445
Keywords
surface; insect; non-stick; coating; superhydrophobic; excrement
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Funding
- German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
- German Science Foundation (DFG) [GO 995/9-1]
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Leafhoppers (Insecta, Hemiptera, Cicadellidae) actively coat their integuments with buckyball-shaped submicron proteinaceous secretory particles, called brochosomes. Here, we demonstrate that brochosomal coats, recently shown to be superhydrophobic, act as non-stick coatings and protect leafhoppers from contamination with their own sticky exudates-filtered plant sap. We exposed 137 wings of Alnetoidia alneti (Dahlbom), from half of which brochosomes were removed, to the rain of exudates under a colony of live A. alneti. One hundred and fifty-two droplets became stuck to the bared wings and only three to the intact wings. Inspection of the wings with a scanning electron microscope confirmed that the droplets that had hit the intact wings had rolled or bounced off the brochosomal coats. This is the first experimental study that tested a biological function of the brochosomal coats of leafhopper integuments. We argue that the production of brochosomes in leafhoppers and production of epidermal wax blooms in other sap-sucking hemipterans are alternative solutions, both serving to protect these insects from entrapment by their exudates.
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