Figure 2.

Setae facilitate particle capture in Sicarius. To test if setae facilitate particle capture in Sicarius, we quantified particle adhesion on cuticle lacking setae and unaltered cuticle and compared the means across all individuals (n=8). Unaltered cuticle retained 49% more particles than cuticle that lacked setae (0.0324±0.00093 particles μm⁻² for unaltered, 0.0217±0.0027 particles μm⁻² for setaless cuticle; mean±s.e.; t=−4.202; d.f.=7; p<0.005). Particles visually covered much more of the cuticle when setae were present. Images are at same magnification.