Cicada Wing Curiosity Piquer

Last month, we found a wing part inside the kitchen door. Wondered if someone tracked it in. Maybe a butterfly wing? Hmm, as I'd been preoccupied with cicadas this July and August, I immediately recognized it as a partial cicada wing. Decided to video-record it, turning it with tweezers, and also taking some stills.


Although seemingly transparent, the wing panes actually have "spikes". Poking around the web, I found articles about cicada wing research, mostly about antibacterial properties. (Google hits for cicada wing water repellency were fewer.)

Antibacterial Capability

From "Cicada wings inspire new ideas for antibacterial products"

Scientists have discovered that the wing surface of the Clanger cicada (Psaltoda claripennis) isn’t flat. Instead, it is covered with thousands of pillars that are about 200 nanometers tall (a nanometer is a billion times smaller than a meter). When certain types of disease causing bacteria land on a cicada’s wing, they are killed by the nanopillars.

From "Nanopillars on surface of wing of the clanger cicada kill bacteria by expanding surface area to the point of stretching and ripping."

On the surface of the clanger cicada there are tiny cone-like structures known as nanopillars. These are spaced out among the wing and protrude upward from the surface. … when a bacterial cell finds itself on the surface of the wing; as it settles in, the nanopillars push up against it causing the cell to somewhat mold around them. This shifting of shape causes stretching in the bacterial cell's membrane. With enough stretch, the surface eventually begins to split and tear.

From "Cicada wings hold engineering and nanotechnology secrets | UNC-TV Science"

structures on a wing about 50 nanometers tall (~2.25 minutes into video), about 1000 times smaller than human hair width.

Additional info about anti-bacterial properties: "Researchers find cicada wing structure able to kill bacteria on contact (w/ video)", "Antibacterial Surfaces Inspired By Cicada Wings"

Water Repellency

From "Studying Cicada Wings for Bioinspiration"

The study, published in the journal Applied Materials and Interfaces, focused on the water-repelling ability of cicada wings. The research team of engineers and entomologists used high-speed microscopic photography to study the wings' ability to repel water.

"The property that allows a surface to repel water is called hydrophobicity and it causes water to bead up and roll away," Miljkovic said. "Superhydrophobicity is simply an extreme form of this property and cicada wings that have this feature have a rough nanotexture that creates open spaces around water droplets, allowing surface tension to force the droplets to jump off of the wings."

From "Cicada Wings Are Self-Cleaning"

Researchers now find the design of their wings can cause filth to jump right off of them with the aid of dew, findings that might help lead to better artificial self-cleaning materials. … Scientists had known that cicada wings are super-water-repellent, or super-hydrophobic.

More Winging It

During winging-it web browsing, I noticed sites that sell cicada wings, both jewelry designs and organic: Amazon Cicada Wing Jewelry for sale, Cicada wings for sale

More Cicadaing

From Cicada Mania—"dedicated to cicadas, the most amazing insects in the world". This site has menu links: News & Facts, Species, Sounds, Photos, FAQs, Merch(andise) 17-Year Cicadas. Oddly, the site doesn't provide info or links about scientific studies about cicada wings.

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For more articles about cicadas, enter "cicada" in the search box at the upper left of this window. Or find and click "cicada" link at Partial Index of Keywords section (just below Popular Posts section).