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Froghopper Bug Crowned "World's Greatest Leaper"

Posted on: Wednesday, 30 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

By ALICIA CHANG

Associated Press -- A common farm pest appears to have leapfrogged over the flea to claim the unofficial title as the world's best jumper.

British researchers say experiments show the spittle bug - a tiny, green insect that sucks the juice from alfalfa and clover - can leap more than 2 feet in the air.

That's more than twice as high as the flea, and equal to a man jumping over the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, scientists said.

"We've all been brought up on fleas as being the best performers. It turns out that, really, they're not," said Malcolm Burrows, a zoologist at the University of Cambridge and the study's lead researcher.

Burrows analyzed the spittle bug soaring through the air using a high-speed camera. By unlocking the insect's jumping secrets, scientists can better understand how it coordinates its brain, eyes and muscles to escape from predators.

The results appear in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

Burrows said the finding is remarkable because the 6 millimeter-long spittle bug - about the size of a pencil eraser - is bigger and heavier than the bloodsucking flea, yet still able to outjump its tiny rival by accelerating faster.

The spittle bug reaches its heights by unleashing the large amount of stored energy in its muscular hind legs. When it is not jumping, it uses its smaller forelegs to move around while dragging its hind legs, which are constantly poised for liftoff.

During take-off, the spittle bug accelerates at more than 400 times the force of gravity compared to 135 times of a flea.

A flea is about one-eighth of an inch long. In an American experiment carried out in 1910, a flea jumped nearly 8 inches in the air, and performed a long jump of 13 inches.

The comparison between a spittle bug and a human athlete is no contest. A human jumps with a force of three times his body weight and Olympians barely can jump above their own height. The world track and field record for the high jump is a fraction over 8 feet.

Humans generally cannot tolerate more than three times the force of gravity before passing out, or about the G-force experienced on the scariest rollercoasters.

The spittle bug is found worldwide. In the United States, it is prevalent along the Pacific Coast and east of the Mississippi River. It is also known as the froghopper because its squatty appearance resembles a frog.

The spittle bug feeds on legumes, pine trees and strawberries. Some species are considered pests and can damage plants by piercing stems and sucking the juice, according to Mike Hoffmann, director of the Integrated Pest Management program at Cornell University.

While feeding, the spittle bug covers itself in bubbles of white, foamy saliva to protect from the sun and its enemies.

Some insect experts who did not participate in the study said the British results reflect the evolutionary lesson that all human athletes eventually must learn.

"There's always someone out there who's bigger, faster, meaner, tougher and can do things better," said Iowa State entomologist Ken Holscher. "Maybe the flea has been replaced by something a little bit better."

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