When it comes to spin-jumping creatures, Sonic the Hedgehog might spring to mind.
But the video game character pales in comparison to one backyard bug, which claims the title as the fastest flipping creature on Earth.
The globular springtail (Dicyrtomina minuta) can complete 368 rotations every second, according to new research led by North Carolina State University.
Incredible footage shows the diminutive bug showing off its jumping prowess – and it would give the world’s top acrobats a run for their money!
‘It’s the closest you can get to a Sonic the Hedgehog jump in real life,’ said Dr Adrian Smith, who led the study.
The globular springtail (Dicyrtomina minuta) can complete 368 rotations every second, according to new research led by North Carolina State University
Globular springtails are tiny insects that measure just 0.2 inches (6mm) in length and can be found in gardens across the UK and US.
While they can’t fly, bite, or sting, they can jump.
In their new study, the researchers set out to understand exactly how the bugs can do this.
‘When globular springtails jump, they don’t just leap up and down, they flip through the air,’ Dr Smith said.
‘So naturally I wanted to see how they do it.’
The researchers ‘recruited’ the globular springtails for the study from Dr Smith’s own garden – but filming the speedy bugs proved tricky.
‘Globular springtails jump so fast that you can’t see it in real time,’ Dr Smith said.
‘If you try to film the jump with a regular camera, the springtail will appear in one frame, then vanish.
Globular springtails are tiny insects that measure just 6mm in length, and can be found in gardens across the UK and US. While they can’t fly, bite, or sting, they can jump
When it comes to spin-jumping creatures, Sonic the Hedgehog might spring to mind. But the video game character pales in comparison to one backyard bug, which claims the title as the fastest flipping creature on Earth
‘When you look at the picture closely, you can see faint vapor trail curlicues left behind where it flipped through the one frame.’
To solve this problem, the researchers used cameras that can shoot 40,000 frames per second.
By prodding the bugs lightly with a paintbrush or shining a light on them, the team were then able to analyse how they took off, how fast and how far they went, and how they landed.
The footage revealed that globular springtails don’t use their legs to jump, and instead rely on an appendage called a furca.
This folds up underneath their abdomen, and has a tiny, forked structure at the tip.
When the bug wants to jump, the furca flips down and the forked tip pushes against the ground, launching them into the air.
‘It only takes a globular springtail one thousandth of a second to backflip off the ground and they can reach a peak rate of 368 rotations per second,’ Dr Smith said.
‘They accelerate their bodies into a jump at about the same rate as a flea, but on top of that they spin.
Globular springtails don’t use their legs to jump, and instead rely on an appendage called a furca. This folds up underneath their abdomen, and has a tiny, forked structure at the tip
‘No other animal on earth does a backflip faster than a globular springtail.’
Not only are the globular springtails’ spins fast, but they’re also high.
The footage revealed that the bugs can launch themselves over 60 millimeters into the air – more than 60 times their own height.
‘They can lean into a jump and go slightly sideways, but when launching from a flat surface, they mostly travel up and backward, never forward,’ said Jacob Harrison, co-author of the study.
‘Their inability to jump forward was an indication to us that jumping is primarily a means to escape danger, rather than a form of general locomotion.’
In terms of the landing, the researchers identified two equally common styles – uncontrolled and anchored.
During anchored landings, the bugs would push a sticky forked tube out of their bodies, which could grapple a surface and halt their momentum.
Meanwhile, during uncontrolled landings, the bugs would simply bounce and tumble to a stop.
‘This is the first time anyone has done a complete description of the globular springtail’s jumping performance measures, and what they do is almost impossibly spectacular,’ Dr Smith said.
‘This is a great example of how we can find incredible, and largely undescribed, organisms living all around us.’
