Froghopper bugs 'invented archery'
Updated on 30 September 2008
Froghoppers, champion jumpers of the insect world, invented archery long before Robin Hood, scientists have learned.
Bow-like structures behind the tiny creature's hind legs and wings enable it to leap more than 100 times their own body length.
The "bow" - known as the pleural arch - is flexed and then quickly released to catapult the froghopper forward.
Scientists revealed close similarities between the jumping structure and composite bows used in archery.
Like a modern bow, it is made of hard and rubbery elastic layers allowing it to be bent for a long time without damage.
Froghoppers hold the pleural arch in a bent position ready to jump at a moment's notice.
Dr Malcolm Burrows, from Cambridge University, who describes the froghopper's secret in online journal BMC Biology, said: "A froghopper stores energy by bending a paired bow-shaped part of its internal skeleton called a 'pleural arch' which is a composite structure made of layers of hard cuticle and a rubbery protein called resilin.
"When the froghopper contracts its muscles to jump, these arches flex like a composite archery bow, and then on recoil catapult it forwards with a force that can be over 400 times its body mass."
Froghoppers, which measure up to 7mm, are common in the UK living on the edges of woodland and grassland.
Some species can jump as far as 70cm vertically, a feat that means they out-perform fleas. A jumping froghopper may also accelerate at the phenomenal rate of 4,000 metres per second per second over short distances.
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