Planktonic crustaceans of the genus Daphnia live
in aquatic environments. Although they lack walking and flying capabilities,
they have developed adaptations that facilitate the dispersal of their
dormant forms, ephippia, to cross terrestrial barriers and reach neighborhood
water bodies. It increases the survival rate of their species. It
is reported that one of the ways this spread occurs is the transport
of their ephippia through waterfowls’ legs. Yet, little is
known about how these ephippia are initially attached to the waterfowls’
legs. In this work, using the legs of American Pekin ducks as test
samples, we found that a “coating” mechanism might play
a significant role in this attachment and that surface tension-induced
attraction might have a secondary effect on it. Furthermore, we demonstrated
that, no matter whether a duck’s leg was inserted into water
at a high or low speed, an ephippium could be released from the leg