How Do Fleas Jump? New Video Solves Mystery
It was no small task, but researchers have used high-speed video to solve how the insects jump—by taking off from their toes.
Silly as it might sound, catching fleas mid-leap is hard, mostly because they're just too fast to capture on film—until now.
Without good photographic evidence, scientists' only alternative has been to examine dead fleas' body parts.
Such flea dissections—combined with the limited high-speed video technology available in the past—revealed that the insects powered their leap with energy stored in one spring inside their bodies.
But how the critters were pushing off the ground remained a total unknown.
Some experts had proposed that fleas push off with their knees, while others had speculated that the insects push off with their toes.
(Related: "Froghopper Bug Crowned 'World's Greatest Leaper.'")
For the new study, Gregory Sutton and
