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Attachment ability of the southern green stink bug Nezara viridula (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae)

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Abstract

The present paper characterizes the attachment ability of males and females of Nezara viridula (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) on artificial surfaces (smooth hydrophilic, smooth hydrophobic, different surface roughness) and on both leaf surfaces of the typical host plant species Vicia faba, using a centrifugal force tester and a traction force experiments set up. N. viridula is a serious crop pest in the world and shows attachment devices different from the so far investigated Heteroptera, with a tarsus characterized by distal smooth flexible pulvilli combined with claws and proximal ventral hairy pad. Notwithstanding the different body mass between the sexes, no difference was found between friction forces generated by females and males. Friction force was higher on hydrophilic surfaces than on hydrophobic ones and was lower on both sides of V. faba leaf compared with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic artificial smooth surfaces. On the surfaces with different roughness, the friction force values varied significantly, with the higher attachment ability on the surface with very high asperity size followed by the smooth surface. The lowest attachment was on the surfaces with intermediate asperity sizes. These results could be related to the specific combination of attachment devices of N. viridula.

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Acknowledgements

The research has been performed thanks to the knowledge acquired during the Erasmus grant (Staff mobility for training 2014-15 (MR) and 2016-17 (GS)) at the Zoological Institute, Functional Morphology and Biomechanics, Christian Albrechts Universitat, Kiel (Germany).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Ambientali, University of Perugia, Borgo XX Giugno, Perugia, Italy

    Gianandrea Salerno

  2. Dipartimento di Chimica, Biologia e Biotecnologie, University of Perugia, Via Elce di Sotto 1, 06121, Perugia, Italy

    Manuela Rebora

  3. Department of Functional Morphology and Biomechanics, Zoological Institute, Kiel University, Am Botanischen Garten 9, 24098, Kiel, Germany

    Elena Gorb, Alexander Kovalev & Stanislav Gorb

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  1. Gianandrea Salerno
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  2. Manuela Rebora
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Correspondence to Manuela Rebora.

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Electronic supplementary material

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359_2017_1177_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Centrifugal force experiments. Examples of plot of the Nezara viridula position over time with increasing rotation speed on hydrophilic and more hydrophobic surfaces (TIFF 146 kb)

359_2017_1177_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Traction force experiments. Examples of force–time curves used to estimate the maximal friction force obtained by Nezara viridula traction on hydrophilic and hydrophobic surface and on adaxial and abaxial Vicia faba leaf surface (TIFF 281 kb)

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Salerno, G., Rebora, M., Gorb, E. et al. Attachment ability of the southern green stink bug Nezara viridula (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae). J Comp Physiol A 203, 601–611 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-017-1177-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-017-1177-5

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