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Nepenthes pitchers: surface structure, physical property, anti-attachment function and potential application in mechanical controlling plague locust

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  • Bionic Engineering
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Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Pitchers plants of Nepenthes specie growing in infertile habitats have developed highly specialized apparatus for trapping and digesting arthropods to obtain sufficient growing nutrients. Nepenthes pitchers are generally recognized by several distinguishably morphological zones, and different districts exhibit distinct functions in prey capturing, combined effect of the several zones results in great trapping efficiency. This prey ability of Nepenthes pitchers potentially inspires an idea for biomimetic development of slippery trapping plate used in controlling agricultural pests, especially plague locust. In this paper, we reviewed the recent researches of Nepenthes pitchers, including surface structures, physical properties, and anti-attachment functions. Apart from this, combined with our latest studies on mechanical controlling plague locust, the potential application of Nepenthes pitchers as establishing biomimetic models utilized in creating trapping plate was addressed, and several corresponding aspects requiring to be paid attention to in near future were also highlighted.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51205107), the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (E2014208056), the Tribology Science Fund of State Key Laboratory of Tribology (SKLTKF13B05) and the Scientific Research Fund for Doctors of Hebei University of Science and Technology (QD201238). Sincere thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their significantly valuable suggestions and viewpoints to this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Mechanical Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang, 050018, China

    Lixin Wang

  2. College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Qiang Zhou

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  1. Lixin Wang
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  2. Qiang Zhou
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Correspondence to Lixin Wang.

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Wang, L., Zhou, Q. Nepenthes pitchers: surface structure, physical property, anti-attachment function and potential application in mechanical controlling plague locust. Chin. Sci. Bull. 59, 2513–2523 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0383-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0383-6

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