Felted - Zoological Use of The Term

Zoological Use of The Term

Examples of the description of animal tissues as "felted" include classes of connective tissue such as the dermis which the classic Gray's Anatomy describes as: "felted connective tissue, with a varying amount of elastic fibers and numerous bloodvessels, lymphatics, and nerves." Also, in describing the external coat or tunica adventitia of an artery, Gray says: "...consists mainly of fine and closely felted bundles of white connective tissue..." In such classes of connective tissue the felted structure is very important; it is versatile in resisting tearing by distributing localised stresses and it imparts strength together with shock absorption and elasticity in two or three dimensions at once, irrespective of the shape of the tissue. In other words, suitable types of felting can yield controllable isotropy or anisotropy in the behaviour of a structure.

Other examples of felted material in animal structures include fibrous structures coating the integument of some insects. Usually such a felted coating is not living tissue, but consists of waxy fibres and is not particularly strong, but serves as protection from either excessive desiccation or moisture. It is particularly common in some families of the Hemiptera. In some species it occurs only as an outer coat of the immature insect, but in others, such as many of the Coccoidea, including the "Australian bug", Icerya purchasi and cochineal, Dactylopius species, it is secreted throughout the life of the insect and serves largely to protect the eggs rather than the insect. In other species, such as many of the "woolly aphids", the Eriosomatinae, the most spectacular fluff is borne on the adult insect itself.

The distinction between felted and other fibrous materials is not always sharp. For example, although truly felted hair on healthy mammals is unusual, many animals, especially in seasonally cold or wet climates or environments, often have a so-called undercoat of down hair plus awn hair that usually lies hidden beneath the outer coat of guard hairs, and may form a mat of lightly felted wool. Such down hairs as a rule are crimped into a finely woolly texture and contain waxy, water-repellent lanolin; in a mass they serve to retain insulating air and exclude water. In many species that live in seasonally frigid zones the winter down hair is shed in clumps during springtime. This is exploited in species such as the muskox; herders collect the wool for commercial purposes without any need for shearing.