Jumping Beetles and Biomimetics

Biomimetics, also called biomimicry, is when people are inspired by what is observed in nature and attempt to duplicate processes for our needs. We have presented several interesting examples on this site, and they show how our Creator works from an engineering approach.

One claim to fame for fleas is that they can catapult themselves over tremendous distance. Well, tremendous according to their size. In the leaf beetle family are flea beetles, often invited to family events to provide entertainment because they also excel at jumping long distances.

Eight-spotted Flea Beetle, Flickr / Hugo A. Quintero G. (CC BY 2.0)

That's a great defense mechanism. A predator gets too close, the beetle says, "I know you wanna eat me, but it's kinda hard because I'm..." (sproing) "...over here now!" I'll allow that some folks are rooting for the predators, since leaf beetles much on crops and such. Even so, this jumping ability is impressive.

That mechanism that lets them go sproing has been studied, and the findings are remarkable. Although Darwin's disciples won't admit it, this is yet another example of irreducible complexity. That is, everything has to be in place and working at once, or nothing works. Of course, a few chants of "Hail Darwin! Blessed be!" were uttered while researchers gave the puny god of Evolution credit for the design.

As usual, speculation was pawned off as empirical science; we're not told how all those details came together by blind chance and random processes over time. They think this mechanism is the product of chance, not the work of the Master Engineer. It's who they are and what they do.

Scaled up to human size, that would be like a 6 ft (1.8 m) tall long-jump athlete leaping more than half a kilometre! When we consider that fighter pilots can sustain no more than 9g for a few seconds, it is remarkable how these beetles survive nearly 30 times that force. Furthermore, these bouncing bugs can perform more than 30 consecutive jumps without tiring.

It took the collaborative efforts of a team of 13 scientists from America and China to discover the secret to the beetle’s bounce. They used a number of advanced techniques to visualise and measure the biological structures and power output of the insect’s jumping mechanism—micro-computed tomography (micro-CT scans), 3D computer reconstructions, high-speed filming, and light microscope dissection. The scientists measured the beetle’s jump, calculating its power and acceleration, and the figures derived are astounding! Regarding Psylliodes punctifrons, the authors report:

You can read the entire article at "Newly discovered jumping beetle mechanism inspires bionic design." Also, "Toothed gears in jumping insects" is also quite interesting.