It is generally accepted that mechanosensors in insects and arthropods have outstanding performance. This requires very smart integration of “hardware”, i.e. the physical mechanosensor itself, and “software”,i.e. the capture, transmission and processing of information. Given the limited range of materials available to biology, a great deal of evolutionary driven morphological and structural optimisation of the sense organs has taken place. Two groups of sensors will be discussed in the presentation in view of their potential for bio-inspired technological applications: campaniform organs and air-flow sensing hairs. As mechanical devices, the basic working concept of these two systems is rather similar but each represents a specific optimisation related to the external (or internal forces) they are designed to react to. In each case a great deal of the functionality depends on the detailed morphology, the materials used and, to a significant degree, on the chitin fibre architectures (orientation, in particular) which are modulated to provide mechanical enhancement or magnification of the input. Campaniform organs provide examples of integrated deformation sensors in fibrous composite structures, capable of detecting and mapping static and, possibly, dynamic deformations. Hair-sensors specialised in detecting fluid flow (often in arrays) provide examples small-size, very low-mass, flow sensing (liquid or gas) devices with several potential applications, as well as for broad-band vibration sensors.