Site of the Week
How crickets jump
http://biology.st-and.ac.uk/sites/jumping/index.htm
Famous for chomping crops and chirping at dusk, locusts and their relatives also have incredible jumping powers. And if you’ve ever wondered how it all works, there’s good news: someone has designed a whole website just to answer your question.
The jumping mechanism is quite complicated, but don’t worry, the site’s author is an expert explainer. Follow the pages step-by-step, from the background on locusts in general to the nitty gritty of muscles, tendons, crossbows and clicking fingers, or go off at tangents along the way by clicking the science links for even more detail. Animations and movies run alongside the explanations, making it easy to see what’s going on. If snazzy design is really important to you then this relatively no-frills site won’t astound you, but everything is laid out well, and the movies are a great addition to the text.
When you’ve learned all there is to know about locusts, look out for the interesting section at the end, highlighting other examples of clever tendon technology in the animal kingdom. The list includes fleas and pistol shrimps, and a caterpillar that has a spring-loaded plate on it’s anus. You can imagine what it catapaults.
Richard Northover
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