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.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Yi Yang for the suggestion on statistical analysis.
Funding
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.
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DLH and SG planned the study. JW, PY, and GS conducted the experiments. PY, JR, and LZ drafted the manuscript. All authors reviewed the manuscript.
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Supplementary file2 Video 1: Take-off of the flea beetle. Time sped up by 66× (MP4 92 KB)
Supplementary file3 Video 2: The flea beetle jumps with its wings folded, pitches and rolls in midair, and orients to stick a perfect landing on its legs. Time sped up by 23× (MOV 7345 KB)
Supplementary file4 Video 3: The flea beetle achieved a wingless take-off (vi = 1.26 m/s), spins and flings its elytra and hind wings in midair, and finally lands on the platform. Time sped up by 23× (MOV 3947 KB)
Supplementary file5 Video 4: The flea beetle takes off with its wings. Time sped up by 23× (MOV 9291 KB)
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Zong, L., Wu, J., Yang, P. et al. Jumping of flea beetles onto inclined platforms. J Comp Physiol A 209, 253–263 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-022-01567-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-022-01567-w