The Biomechanics of the Jumping Flea
In 1967, Henry Bennet-Clark discovered that fleas store the energy needed to catapult themselves into the air in an elastic pad made of resilin. However, in the intervening years debate raged about exactly how fleas harness this explosive energy.
New research into how fleas leap.
“The insects transmit the force from the resilin spring in the thorax through leg segments acting as levers to push down on the tarsus and launch the 0.7 mg animals at speeds as high as 1.9 m s–1.”