## 1 Introduction  
Living organisms have evolved to well-adapted structures and materials over time through natural selection and evolution [1]. In particular, biomimetics has given rise to new technologies inspired by biological solutions at micro and nanoscales. In this scenario, nature provides a wide range of surfaces with specific functions and properties [2; 3; 4; 5]. In consequence, the fabrication of structures in the micro- and nano-range can permit to design materials with advanced surface properties by tailoring desired material properties [6]. These complex designs are only possible to fabricate on industrial products using novel fabrication techniques, offering both high resolution and throughput. Mimicking natural designs helps in understanding the related phenomena and correlate topographies with specific mechanisms and functions. One of the most studied surface functions is related to the control of the wettability of solids, which have attracted interest from both fundamental and practical perspectives [7]. The wettability is usually determined by measuring the contact angle (CA) of a water droplet on a solid surface. According to the most common definitions, a surface can be described as superhydrophobic, when its water contact angle (WCA) is higher than 150\({}^{\circ}\). Some superhydrophobic surfaces can cause water and even oil to roll-off leaving little or no residue and simultaneously carry away surface contamination, showing self-cleaning properties [5; 8; 9]. The best known example of self-cleaning surface is the lotus leaf (_Nelumbo nucifera_) or the _Colocasia esculenta_,a symbol of purity for thousands of years [8]. In particular these leaves present a large diversity of hierarchical surface structures ranging from micro to the nanometer scale, which have been studied with the help of scanning electron microscopy techniques [8; 9]. The Lotus-Effect is however not restricted to plants, but it can be also found on insects skin or wings [10; 11]. Another important example in which functional microstructures play a fundamental role is the skin of the ventral body of snakes. Several studies have in fact revealed that their motion is facilitated since the surface of the snake skin generates low friction when sliding in the forward direction, and at the same time produces high friction along the substrate for pushing the body forward [12]. Thus, the term biomimetics, referred to the \"imitation of life\", has become popular in the fields of science and engineering due to the endless potential technological ideas in large functional surfaces. The numerous surfaces observed on plants and animals can serve as the base of enhancement of technological functions [2]. Mimicking micro patterns can be achieved by different routes [7]. Many of them normally exhibit micro- or nanosized roughness as well as hierarchical structures. In the field of non-contact manufacturing process, laser-based methods have shown a considerable development for mimicking natural examples. For instance, direct laser writing method have been used to control the wettability of surfaces using nanosecond [13; 14], picosecond [15] and femtosecond [16; 17; 18; 19] laser sources. In particular, Direct Laser Interference Patterning (DLIP) offers high flexibility and throughput for feature sizes in the micro- and nano-range [20; 21; 22; 23]. The DLIP principle is based on the periodic modulation of the laser intensity which can be obtained by the generation of interference patterns between two or more coherent laser beams. The produced intensity distribution allows irradiating relative large areas using even only a single pulse. The geometry of the patterns can be transferred to metals, polymers or ceramics by different ablation processes. Furthermore, when utilizing fs-lasers, even very complex 3D patterns such nano-bumps and nano-wire arrays can be fabricated [24].