Beetle outjumps flea to claim world record
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Flea, scourge of pets and damned by their owners, could at least claim to be the world's greatest jumper. Now even that accolade looks doomed.
A beetle that spends much of its life encased in "cuckoo spit" has taken its title. The spittle bug, or froghopper, outperforms the flea in the high jump, a Cambridge University scientist has found.
Using a high-speed video camera, Malcolm Burrows, an entomologist in the zoology department, found that the six-millimetre-long insect can leap to heights of 70cm (28ins), equivalent to a human hurdling a 210-metre skyscraper.
"Fleas are considered to be the champion jumpers, but here I show that froghoppers are in fact the real champions and that they achieve their supremacy by using a novel catapault mechanism for jumping," Dr Burrows writes in the journal Nature.
There are two ways of leaping. Kangaroos and other long-legged creatures use the leverage of their limbs, whereas the short-legged flea uses the sudden release of pent-up energy to accelerate. Dr Burrows found that the froghopper uses a similar catapault mechanism to accelerate to speeds up to 4,000 metres per second.
Froghoppers exert a force more than 400 times their body weight, compared to a flea's jumping force of 135 times its body weight. A good human jumper exerts a force of about three times body weight.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments