Jumping without Using Legs: The Jump of the Click-Beetles (Elateridae) Is Morphologically Constrained
To return to their feet, inverted click-beetles (Elateridae) jump without using their legs. When a beetle is resting on its dorsal side, a hinge mechanism is locked to store elastic energy in the body and releases it abruptly to launch the beetle into the air. While the functional morphology of the...
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| Format: | Online |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science
2011
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3116849/ |
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pubmed-3116849 |
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pubmed-31168492011-06-22 Jumping without Using Legs: The Jump of the Click-Beetles (Elateridae) Is Morphologically Constrained Ribak, Gal Weihs, Daniel Research Article To return to their feet, inverted click-beetles (Elateridae) jump without using their legs. When a beetle is resting on its dorsal side, a hinge mechanism is locked to store elastic energy in the body and releases it abruptly to launch the beetle into the air. While the functional morphology of the jumping mechanism is well known, the level of control that the beetle has over this jumping technique and the mechanical constraints governing the jumps are not entirely clear. Here we show that while body rotations in air are highly variable, the jumps are morphologically constrained to a constant “takeoff” angle (79.9°±1.56°, n = 9 beetles) that directs 98% of the jumping force vertically against gravity. A physical-mathematical model of the jumping action, combined with measurements from live beetle, imply that the beetle may control the speed at takeoff but not the jumping angle. In addition, the model shows that very subtle changes in the exact point of contact with the ground can explain the vigorous rotations of the body seen while the beetle is airborne. These findings suggest that the evolution of this unique non-legged jumping mechanism resulted in a jumping technique that is capable of launching the body high into the air but it is too constrained and unstable to allow control of body orientation at landing. Public Library of Science 2011-06-16 /pmc/articles/PMC3116849/ /pubmed/21698194 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0020871 Text en Ribak, Weihs. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
| repository_type |
Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
| building |
NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
Ribak, Gal Weihs, Daniel |
| spellingShingle |
Ribak, Gal Weihs, Daniel Jumping without Using Legs: The Jump of the Click-Beetles (Elateridae) Is Morphologically Constrained |
| author_facet |
Ribak, Gal Weihs, Daniel |
| author_sort |
Ribak, Gal |
| title |
Jumping without Using Legs: The Jump of the Click-Beetles (Elateridae) Is Morphologically Constrained |
| title_short |
Jumping without Using Legs: The Jump of the Click-Beetles (Elateridae) Is Morphologically Constrained |
| title_full |
Jumping without Using Legs: The Jump of the Click-Beetles (Elateridae) Is Morphologically Constrained |
| title_fullStr |
Jumping without Using Legs: The Jump of the Click-Beetles (Elateridae) Is Morphologically Constrained |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Jumping without Using Legs: The Jump of the Click-Beetles (Elateridae) Is Morphologically Constrained |
| title_sort |
jumping without using legs: the jump of the click-beetles (elateridae) is morphologically constrained |
| description |
To return to their feet, inverted click-beetles (Elateridae) jump without using their legs. When a beetle is resting on its dorsal side, a hinge mechanism is locked to store elastic energy in the body and releases it abruptly to launch the beetle into the air. While the functional morphology of the jumping mechanism is well known, the level of control that the beetle has over this jumping technique and the mechanical constraints governing the jumps are not entirely clear. Here we show that while body rotations in air are highly variable, the jumps are morphologically constrained to a constant “takeoff” angle (79.9°±1.56°, n = 9 beetles) that directs 98% of the jumping force vertically against gravity. A physical-mathematical model of the jumping action, combined with measurements from live beetle, imply that the beetle may control the speed at takeoff but not the jumping angle. In addition, the model shows that very subtle changes in the exact point of contact with the ground can explain the vigorous rotations of the body seen while the beetle is airborne. These findings suggest that the evolution of this unique non-legged jumping mechanism resulted in a jumping technique that is capable of launching the body high into the air but it is too constrained and unstable to allow control of body orientation at landing. |
| publisher |
Public Library of Science |
| publishDate |
2011 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3116849/ |
| _version_ |
1611460308077903872 |