Overview

Abstract

Attachment is one of the major types of interactions between an organism and its environment. There are numerous studies that deal with this phenomenon in lizards, frogs, insects, barnacles, mussels and echinoderms, but the second largest class of arthropods, the Arachnida, is highly neglected. This book surveys the attachment organs and structures, and adhesive secretions occurring in this class of animals and discusses the relationship between morphology and function, evolutionary trends, and biomimetic potential. In this chapter we give a brief introduction into the topic, describe the methodologies used, provide a unifying terminology of attachment organs in arachnids, and give an overview on the attachment principles and their distribution among arachnid orders.