Diversity, function, and evolution of caterpillar attachment devices

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In my research, I aim to combine basic physiological, ecological and molecular approaches to investigate the evolution of organisms. In particular, I would like to find out how developmental constraints for insect attachment devices, their biomechanical function on plant surfaces, and their ecological context have shaped the evolution of these structures. I have been particularly interested in the larvae of Lepidoptera: despite their worldwide importance as herbivores, the detailed mechanisms of how caterpillars attach to their host plants using their unusually diverse prolegs as well as silk threads are still unclear. I aim to explore the constraints and driving factors of insect biomechanical trait evolution by investigating how proleg function and silk use correlate with ecology, how prolegs have evolved across the Lepidoptera, and by gathering evidence from developmental genetics on whether proleg and thoracic leg development are coupled. A detailed understanding of caterpillar attachment mechanisms is also important in the context of herbivory and plant defences as well as biomimetics: knowledge of plant-proleg interactions will help to develop physical (pesticide-free) methods for crop defense while caterpillar silk represents an attachment-specialised counterpart to more well-understood spider silks.