This book is devoted to the rapidly growing area of science dealing with structure and properties of biological surfaces in their relation to particular function(s). This volume, written by a team of specialists from different disciplines, covers various surface functions such as protection, defense, water transport, anti-wetting, self cleaning, light reflection and scattering, and acoustics. Because biological surfaces have a virtually endless potential of technological ideas for the development of new materials and systems, inspirations from biology could also be interesting for a broad range of topics in surface engineering.

Adhesion Enhancement and Reduction in Biological Surfaces.- Adhesion Enhancement.- The Echinoderm Tube Foot and its Role in Temporary Underwater Adhesion.- Mechanisms and Principles Underlying Temporary Adhesion, Surface Exploration and Settlement Site Selection by Barnacle Cyprids: A Short Review.- Alternative Tasks of the Insect Arolium with Special Reference to Hymenoptera.- Organs of Adhesion in Some Mountain-stream Teleosts of India: Structure-Function Relationship.- Surface Characteristics of Locomotor Substrata and Their Relationship to Gekkonid Adhesion: A Case Study of Rhoptropus cf biporosus.- Adhesion Reduction.- Variable Attachment to Plant Surface Waxes by Predatory Insects.- The Waxy Surface in Nepenthes Pitcher Plants: Variability, Adaptive Significance and Developmental Evolution.- Functional Surfaces in the Pitcher of the Carnivorous Plant Nepenthes alata: A Cryo-Sem Approach.