adhere OR attach
11. Sticky berries adhere: Australian mistletoe
"As a group, the Australian mistletoes have developed a rather more specialised system of transport than that employed by their European relative. One particular bird, the mistletoe bird, eats little other than mistletoe berries. There are so many...
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12. Roots attach firmly: English ivy
"English ivy (Hedera helix L.) is able to grow on vertical substrates such as trees, rocks and house plaster, thereby attaching so firmly to the surface that when removed by force typically whole pieces of the climbin...
13. Silk threads adhere underwater: marine amphipod
"The discovery of a novel silk production system in a marine amphipod provides insights into the wider potential of natural silks. The tube-building corophioid amphipod Crassicorophium bonellii produces from its legs fibrous, adhesi...
14. Larvae adhere temporarily underwater: barnacles
"Cypris larvae of the barnacle Semibalanus balanoides leave proteinaceous footprints on surfaces during pre-settlement exploration. These footprints are considered to mediate temporary adhesion of cyprids to substrata and, as such, represent...
15. Hooks adhere to wooly coats: burdock
"Calyx globular, formed of numerous narrow scales, each tipped with a little incurved hook, by means of which the whole calyx, when laden with ripe seed, easily separating from its stalk, adheres to the hairy or wooly coats of animals, who can sca...
16. Disklike structures adhere to smooth surfaces: Spix's disk-winged bat
"Several of the smallest bats, for instance, use [suction adhesion] to cling to smooth leaves, with disklike structures on wrists and ankles. In the 3.5-gram Thyroptera tricolor of Central America, suction provides the main mechanism; these bats' ...
17. Multiple mechanisms help flies adhere.
"A fly can easily walk on the most slippery surfaces or stand still on a ceiling for hours. Its feet are better equipped to hold on to glass, walls and ceilings than those of a climber. If the retractable claws are not enough, suction pads on its ...
18. Suckers used to attach to roots: Maltese fungus
"On top of a tiny pillar of rock standing in the sea just off the Maltese island of Gozo grows one of the rarest of all Mediterranean plants. It is called locally the Maltese fungus. In fact it is not a fungus but a true flowering plant. Most of i...
19. Eggs adhere in and out of water: midwife toad
"After the pair lays and fertilizes strings of twenty to sixty eggs, the father thrusts his legs through the egg mass. The sticky egg strings adhere to him, and he stumbles around for the next few weeks with the eggs entwined around his thighs and...
20. Sticky berries adhere: European mistletoe
"The only European mistletoe is the strange twin-leaved parasite that once played an important part in human fertility rites, perhaps because in winter its leaves remain green and visibly alive when those of the tree on which it grows have all fal...
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