Tribological properties of femoro-tibial leg joints in two beetles, darkling beetle Zophobas morio and Congo rose chafer Pachnoda marginata were studied. Very low friction of 0.004 was revealed by the direct measurements in the joint. It is assumed that semi-solid lubricant functioning as in technical bearings is one of the leading factors of the friction minimization. Dependence of the surface texture and physical chemical properties (hydrophobicity) on the cuticle friction was analysed. Contribution of the surface texture to the tribological properties of contacting surfaces was examined by the measurement in the tribosystem “contacting surface/glass”. It is supposed that coefficient of friction (COF) decreases with decrease of surface roughness. At the same time, no statistically significant correlation was found between the hydrophobicity of the surface and the value of the friction coefficient.

研究了两种甲虫（黑甲虫 Zophobas morio 和刚果玫瑰金龟子 Pachnoda marginata）股骨-胫骨腿关节的摩擦学特性。通过直接测量接头，发现摩擦力非常低，为 0.004。据认为，在技术轴承中发挥作用的半固体润滑剂是摩擦最小化的主要因素之一。分析了表面纹理和物理化学性质（疏水性）对角质层摩擦的依赖性。通过摩擦系统“接触表面/玻璃”中的测量来检查表面纹理对接触表面摩擦学特性的贡献。据推测，摩擦系数（COF）随着表面粗糙度的减小而减小。同时，表面疏水性与摩擦系数值之间没有发现统计上显着的相关性。