To Jump

    As I have mentioned in a previous post, spring is coming here in Oklahoma and several groups of insects are starting to come out. One of the more numerous groups of insects out there are the beetles (Coleoptera), and they are starting to creep out of their overwintering shelters or hatch out of their eggs for a brand new year!
    One of the beetles I saw starting to show up on campus here at the University of Oklahoma is a shiny green metallic and red flea beetle called Kuschelina gibbitarsa. It is part of a group of beetles called the flea beetles because they have a very strong "jumping" mechanism to get escape predators. If you look closely at these beetle's hind legs, you'll notice that the femora (longest parts of the leg, kind of like our femur) are really wide and "fat", because they have lots of muscles in there to help them push off into the air when threatened. These small to medium-sized beetles feed on plants, many beetles in fact feed on one or two types of plants only!

Examples of other types of flea beetles. Image by James Lindsey at Ecology of Commanster

      All flea beetles are part of the beetle tribe Alticini, named after the beetle genus Alticus. Altus in Latin means "high", which is in reference to their high jump. Other words that use "alt" like the Alticini are "altitude", "altimeter", etc. Actual fleas on the other hand, the Siphonaptera, do not get their name for their jumping but their siphon-like mouth parts and lack of wings (siphon+aptera, aptera meaning lack of wings). Fleas are much better jumpers than flea beetles (see a really neat article about flea jumping abilities here from the BBC), but flea beetles are still pretty impressive with how high and fast they can jump!
      So, if you're walking around campus this spring and you see something spring from a plant really quickly, it could be one of these flea beetles! Have a great weekend everyone!