Published October 12, 2022
| public
Journal Article
Jumping of flea beetles onto inclined platforms
Chicago
Abstract
The flea beetle, Altica cirsicola, escapes predators by jumping and landing in a dense maze of leaves. How do they land on such varied surfaces? In this experimental study, we filmed the take-off, flight, and landing of flea beetles on a configurable angled platform. We report three in-flight behaviors: winged, wingless, and an intermediate winged mode. These modes significantly affected take-off speed, acceleration, and the duration that wings were deployed. When wings were closed, flea beetles rolled or pitched up to five times in the air. This work may help to understand how insects can jump and right themselves onto variable surfaces.
Additional Information
We are grateful to Yi Yang for the suggestion on statistical analysis. This research was funded by Grants from the Third Xinjiang Scientific Expedition Program of the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No.2021xjkk0605). DLH was funded by National Science Foundation Grant No. 1510884.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 117311
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20221010-454096500.27
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- 2021xjkk0605
- NSF
- CBET-1510884
- Created
-
2022-10-12Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2022-10-12Created from EPrint's last_modified field