biomimetics great designs: earwig wing folding (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, July 13, 2020, 22:38 (1384 days ago) @ David Turell

A great design we can copy, as we didn't invent it:

https://techxplore.com/news/2020-07-insect-inspired-fans-wide-ranging-applications.html

"A highly sophisticated folding mechanism employed by a group of insects for at least 280 million years is set to become available for a wide range of applications, thanks to a design method developed and tested through multidisciplinary research by engineers and palaeobiologists.

"According to an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today, researchers have recreated the complex, highly compact folding mechanisms found in the wings of earwigs with an origami-inspired geometrical method, which has potential applications across different fields of engineering.

"The hind wings of earwigs fold automatically under small leathery forewings when the animal is not in flight, employing a specialized folding pattern that reduces surface area ten to 15 times or more depending on the species. This is the most compact wing folding found in insects and gives earwigs unparalleled ground mobility for a flying insect. With the wings protected and their abdomens fully flexible, earwigs are able to wriggle into the soil and other narrow spaces, as well as use their characteristic rear pincers.

"Despite the outstanding potential for engineering of the earwig wing and its unique properties, a method for designing their complex folding patterns had not been resolved, hindering practical applications.

***

"The wings of modern earwigs show little variation across their approximately 2,000 living species, with shape and folding patterns remaining remarkably stable through evolution because of their specialized function," says Dr. Ricardo Pérez-de la Fuente, an insect palaeobiologist from Oxford University Museum of Natural History and co-author of the work. "However, a group of long-extinct insects—the protelytropterans—possessed fan-like wings similar to those of earwigs, but different enough to test the consistency of the new design method. Our work shows how paleontology can be of interest for practical applications."

"The new method defines the geometrical constraints for the fan-like wings of both earwigs and their deep-time protelytropteran relatives to remain functional. This allowed the researchers to project extinct, hypothetical intermediate forms between the two groups, shedding light on possible evolutionary pathways that could have led to the sophisticated wings of modern earwigs.

"'Nature has consistently been an everlasting source of inspiration," says Prof Zhong You, from Oxford University's Department of Engineering Science and co-author of the work. "Bioinspired technologies keep offering some of the most efficient and sustainable ways to meet many of the challenges of the future.'" (my bold)

Comment: Nature continues to be smarter than we are, or might I say the designer is smarter.