Power Of Genie

For long time i  thought Fleas are the tallest jumping insects/animals on earth. But discovery scientists have proved other wise,

According to discovery blog:

“An international team of researchers has just determined that spittlebugs jump higher than any other creature when body length is taken into consideration.

Spittlebugs beat out fleas for the #1 spot.

To earn nature’s high jump champ crown, the tiny insects lept close to 28 inches, or 100 spittlebug body lengths. For comparison, the ability to leap 100 times the height of the average human would enable a jumper to clear many of the nation’s tallest buildings.

The bugs protect themselves by whipping up a froth that looks like a gross cross between human spit and latte foam. You usually don’t even see the insects themselves, since they hide in blobs of the stuff on your garden plants. Here’s what they look like. The scientists figured out that spittlebugs use a catapult-like mechanism to achieve their jumping prowess. Energy generated by the slow contraction of a huge bank of muscles is stored in an elastic internal structure, then released in less than a millisecond to power the explosive extension of the bug’s hind legs.

“They jump like little bullets,” says Steve Shaw, a professor with the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Dalhousie University. “It’s a last ditch escape response, otherwise the bug becomes bird food.””