Nanoindentation Technique for Measuring Properties of the Clypeus Cuticle of Dung Beetle

The surface materials and structures of insect cuticle can provide useful information for designing anti-adhesion components material. Quantitive measurement of mechanical properties of insect cuticle will help to develop biomimetic materials suitable for industrial products. In this work, the mechanical properties of the cuticle of dung beetle Copris ochus Motschulsky, reduced modulus and hardness in nano-scale, were investigated by using a nanoindenter. It was shown that the nanomechanical properties of the cuticle were change with each layer of the cuticle. The modulus and hardness in cross section was gradually reduced from the outer layer to the inner layer. And the value in the outer layer is larger than that in vertical direction. So we can suppose that its vertical nanoindentation was resulted from the composite effect of the all layers.