New Video: Springtails jumping in super-slow motion
For immediate release ‐ March 24, 2021
Contact: Adrian Smith, 919.707.8095. Images available upon request
Dr. Adrian Smith, Head of the Museum’s Evolutionary Biology & Behavior Research Lab, has posted a new video showing off-water jumps of the semi-aquatic collembola Sminthurides aquaticus and solid ground jumps of Dicyrtomina minuta captured in slow motion video, filming at speeds over 73,000 frames per second! These animals are fast and incredible!
The image of Sminthurides aquaticus is by Andy Murray. Check out his amazing collembola photography here: https://www.chaosofdelight.org/.
Here are a few of the published studies describing and filming these jumps prior to Dr. Smith’s work:
Brackenbury & Hunt (1993) Jumping in springtails: mechanism and dynamics. J. Zool. Lond. 229: 217-236
Sudo et al. (2013) The Kinematics of Jumping of Globular Springtail. Journal of Aero Aqua Bio-mechanisms 3:85-91
Sudo et al. (2015) Jumps of Water Springtail and Morphology of the Jumping Organ. Journal of JSEM s117-s124