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Water capture by a desert beetle

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This insect has a tailor-made covering for collecting water from early-morning fog.

Abstract

Some beetles in the Namib Desert collect drinking water from fog-laden wind on their backs1. We show here that these large droplets form by virtue of the insect's bumpy surface, which consists of alternating hydrophobic, wax-coated and hydrophilic, non-waxy regions. The design of this fog-collecting structure can be reproduced cheaply on a commercial scale and may find application in water-trapping tent and building coverings, for example, or in water condensers and engines.

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Figure 1: The water-capturing surface of the fused overwings (elytra) of the desert beetle Stenocara sp.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK

    Andrew R. Parker

  2. Mechanical Sciences Sector, QinetiQ, GU14 0LX, Farnborough, UK

    Chris R. Lawrence

Authors
  1. Andrew R. Parker
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  2. Chris R. Lawrence
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Correspondence to Andrew R. Parker.

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Parker, A., Lawrence, C. Water capture by a desert beetle. Nature 414, 33–34 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35102108

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