Extraordinarily pressure-tolerant beetle studied to improve mechanical engineering designs

Hello there dear friends of the cave beetle, Again it's been a while since the last post. Covid-19 keeps its claws on our lives, forcing us to work from home as much as we can. In my case, that means teaching in the zoom classroom and the relatively easy challenge of providing the inspiring and effective learning experience that students deserve for the hard-earned tuition dollars.

As to the cave beetle: We overcame a summer slump in terms of generating offspring. Two populations resumed producing larvae beginning of September. Not in massive numbers but it will be interesting to see how long this ongoing reproductive activity will continue. Equally important, we completed the temperature preference experiments over summer. But more about this, plus the second paper I will feature here, in future posts. This one is about an extraordinary beetle species that made headlines this week to the effect that two friends of mine brought them to my attention. So I feel obliged to spread the news further.

Anyone, who thought learning about head-beating Neocerambyx gigas in July was time well spent (https://experiment.com/u/888lVQ), will be thrilled to learn about the pressure record-crushing diabolical ironclad beetle, scientifically known as Phloeodes diabolicus. You can find these animals on the West Coast of the United States (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosoderma_diabolicum). What makes them exceptional is the fact that "Beyond feigning death, this beetle has a remarkable ability to withstand crushing and piercing strikes from predators, and even the occasional automobile" as effectively stated by the authors of the new in-depth study of the cuticle organization in the protective forewings. The publication "Toughening mechanisms of the elytra of the diabolical ironclad beetle" can be enjoyed online: Rivera et al., Nature 586, 543–548. And I can spare myself the time to comment any further by directing you to the fascinating video summary produced by the lab of the senior author of the study, Dr. David Kisailus at the University of California, Irvine:

The online newsroom of Purdue University, which homes the second team of the collaborative work offers a great compilation of additional named diabolical ironclad beetle resources: https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2020/Q4/this-beetle-can-survive-getting-run-over-by-a-car.-engineers-are-figuring-out-how..html 

 

Cross-section of the interface that links its interlocked forewings from Figure 1 in Rivera et al. (2020)