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It can survive being hit by a car, pecked by predators, and crushed underfoot. Now researchers have revealed the secrets behind the near-indestructibility of the diabolical armored beetle.
Found in wooded areas of the west coast of the United States, the beetle is about 2 cm long. Like other species of flightless beetles, their wing covers, known as elytra, are not only hardened, but fused together. The result is twisted black armor that protects it from being crushed.
Researchers have revealed just how tough this armor is, finding that the diabolical battleship can withstand much greater forces than other flightless beetles from similar habitats, surviving loads of roughly 39,000 times its body weight. That is similar to a 90 kg human bearing the weight of about 280 double-decker buses.
“We were impressed. Especially since this beetle does not contain any minerals, only organic components, “said Professor David Kisailus, co-author of the study from the University of California at Irvine.
Writing in the journal Nature, Kisailus and his colleagues report how they examined the structure of the beetle’s exoskeleton to understand what makes it so difficult.
Among their findings, they discovered that the fused elytra of the beetle were intertwined. While other scarabs have interlocking elytra, the diabolical battleship had a greater number of interlocking sections, resembling connected puzzle pieces. In subsequent experiments, the team found that this helped to distribute stress and make the bond stronger.
Elytra were also found to be layered and rich in protein, characteristics that can increase toughness. The experiments showed that when a weight was applied where the elytra joined, these layers came off, releasing the tension and leaving the joint intact.
The elytra are connected to the beetle’s shell at its bottom, with stronger and stiffer joints where vital organs need protection, and more flexible joints elsewhere that, according to the team, act a bit like springs, absorbing energy when the forces they pressure the insect.
Other experiments showed that the characteristics observed in the exoskeleton of the diabolical armored beetle could be used to develop techniques for joining materials. Incorporating such features was found to produce stronger bonds than the fasteners normally used in turbine engines.
“Since nature has been optimizing and conducting experiments for hundreds of millions of years, there are abundant resources to provide inspiration for next-generation materials,” Kisailus said.
Max Barclay, the beetle curator at London’s Natural History Museum, who was not involved in the study, said that while many species of beetles could fly away from threats, the diabolical flightless armored beetle had to harden itself to survive.
Barclay added that while most beetles lived for only a few weeks, the diabolical battleship could live for about seven to eight years. “These beetles are making the equivalent of beetles to live for 1,000 years, so they have to protect themselves against risk in a way that shorter-lived creatures do not,” he said.
