Scientists have studied insect feet ever since Hooke drew the first microscopic images of fly "tallons" and "palms" nearly 400 years ago. "It's a very old subject," says entomologist Walter Federle of the University of California, Berkeley, and leading author of a recent study on how Asian weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) and honeybees (Apis mellifera) grip smooth surfaces and even walk upside down.
Early on, Hooke and fellow microscopist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek were more concerned with what the pads looked like rather than how they worked, Federle says. But by the 19th century, scientists became more interested in function and experimenting with insect feet to discover how insects could grip with such tenacity.
And tthey are still experimenting. Scientists such as Federle want to know what it is about those adhesive pads, called arolia, that allow insects to run along slippery, waxy plant leaves and stems without falling down, even ...
