Pulvilli are soft, cushionlike pads on the feet of insects and other arthropods, such as the

housefly The housefly (''Musca domestica'') is a fly of the suborder Cyclorrhapha. It is believed to have evolved in the Cenozoic Era, possibly in the Middle East, and has spread all over the world as a commensal of humans. It is the most common fl ...

and

ixodid The Ixodidae are the family of hard ticks or scale ticks, one of the three families of ticks, consisting of over 700 species. They are known as 'hard ticks' because they have a scutum or hard shield, which the other major family of ticks, the 'sof ...

ticks. They are located at the base of the claws (#2 in the figure at right). The pulvilli function as an adhesive system. Their sticking power comes partly from

Van der Waals force In molecular physics, the van der Waals force is a distance-dependent interaction between atoms or molecules. Unlike ionic or covalent bonds, these attractions do not result from a chemical electronic bond; they are comparatively weak and th ...

, and partly from an adhesive fluid secreted from the extremities onto surfaces.

References

Insect morphology {{arthropod-anatomy-stub