“Wherever you are in the world, an insect like one of these—a leafhopper, a treehopper, a froghopper, or a planthopper—is likely right outside, not far from your door,” explains Ant Lab‘s Dr. Adrian Smith. And since he couldn’t find any good videos of these ‘jumping hopper’s’ incredible jumping skills on YouTube, he created a video full of examples: Jumping Hoppers in Slow Motion.
Some are smooth and streamlined jumpers, others are a bit haphazard and comedic, but all of them are fast. The speedy insects are all in the order Hemiptera, are very common, and mostly feed on plant juices that provide sugars and nitrogen.
Most hemipterans are phytophagous, using their sucking and piercing mouthparts to feed on plant sap… The relationship between hemipterans and plants appears to be ancient, with piercing and sucking of plants evident in the Early Devonian period.
The video is a follow up to Smith’s previous study: Are globular springtails the fastest spinning animals on Earth?
The Ant Lab YouTube channel explores projects from the Evolutionary Biology and Behavior Research Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and North Carolina State University.
Watch these related bug-jumping videos next:
• Flower-like Planthopper Nymphs spring away from harm
• The Praying Mantis Leaps
• Epic Catapulting Locust In Slow Motion
• Golden Age of Insect Aviation: The Great Grasshoppers
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