Chitin, a fascinating biopolymer found in living organisms, fulfills current demands of
availability, sustainability, biocompatibility, biodegradability, functionality, and renewability …

Adhesive pads are functional systems with specific micro-and nanostructures which evolved
as a response to specific environmental conditions and therefore exhibit convergent traits …

Phasmatodea comprises over 3,000 extant species and stands out as one of the last
remaining insect orders for which a robust, higher-level phylogenetic hypothesis is lacking …

The insect order Phasmatodea is known for large slender insects masquerading as twigs or
bark. In contrast to these so-called stick insects, the subordinated clade of leaf insects …

Background The re-evolution of complex characters is generally considered impossible, yet,
studies of recent years have provided several examples of phenotypic reversals shown to …

Stick and leaf insects (Phasmatodea) are large, tropical, predominantly nocturnal
herbivores, which exhibit extreme masquerade crypsis, whereby they morphologically and …

Stick and leaf insects (Phasmatodea) are large terrestrial herbivorous arthropods known for
masquerading as plant parts such as bark, twigs and leaves. Their evolutionary history is …

Bee lice (Braulidae) are small parasitic flies, which are adapted to live on their bee host. As
such, the wingless Braula coeca is a parasite of the common honey bee Apis mellifera and it …

Background In most arthropods, adult females are larger than males, and male competition
is a race to quickly locate and mate with scattered females (scramble competition polygyny) …

Stick insects are well adapted in their locomotion to various surfaces and topographies of
natural substrates. Single pad measurements characterised the pretarsal arolia of these …