title: Water capture by a desert beetle.
abstract: Some beetles in the Namib Desert collect drinking water from fog-laden wind on their backs. 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK. andrew.parker@zoo.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Lawrence
mesh_terms: D000353:Africa, Southern; D000818:Animals; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000502:physiology*; D003889:Desert Climate; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D014867:Water