Sign In
Learn bits
Ecology & Environment
Pradeep Kumar

20/06/21 12:20 PM IST

Setae of spiders

Context
  • Spiders do not have sticky or adhesive pads like frogs and lizards, instead, they have toe pads covered in tiny, branched hairs.
  • Called 'setae', these hairs are also found in geckos and certain beetles. Each hair is just one-hundredth of one millimetre thick.
  • The feet of wandering spider Cupiennius salei is made up of about 2,400 'setae' and a study published last month (Frontiers in Mechanical Engineering) found that each hair showed unique adhesive properties.
In news

The research team from Germany studied how each hair sticks to rough and smooth surfaces, including sandpapers, glass, epoxy resin.

About the research
  • They also looked at how the hairs stuck at different contact angles. 
  • The adhesion forces largely differed between the individual hairs, for example, one hair adhered best at a low angle with the substrate while the other one performed best close to a perpendicular alignment.
  • The team writes that this variety helps spiders climb different surfaces.
  • The team studied the hairs under hi-tech microscopes to understand their structure.
  • They found that each hair was different and had previously unrecognised structural arrangements.
Source: The Hindu

More Related Current Affairs View All

08 Sep

Rajasthan’s coaching centre Bill

'The Rajasthan Coaching Centres (Control and Regulation) Bill, 2025, is a significant piece of legislation passed by the Rajasthan Assembly to regulate and oversee the state's burg

Read More

28 Aug

IADT-1

'Recently, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully carried out its first Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT-1), a crucial milestone in the preparation for the countr

Read More

28 Aug

H-1B visa changes

'H-1B visa changes 2025: United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called the popular H-1B visa program a “scam”, saying that American businesses should be focuse

Read More

India’s First Ai-Driven Magazine Generator

Generate Your Custom Current Affairs Magazine using our AI in just 3 steps