Spotted lanternflies have functional gears!

[blepharopsis]

Turns out the nymphs of the spotted lanternfly (an invasive species of a planthopper spreading across the US East coast - it got a lot of press last summer!) have gears coupling hind (jumping) legs to perfectly synchronize their movement! Not totally unexpectedly - all the other families of planthoppers within the infraorder Fulgoroidae seem to have them too.

Taken with Zeiss LSM 980 with a 10x NA .45 objective. Autofluorescence excited with the 405, 488 and 560 laser lines. I had to tile twice to get both trochanters in view.

[rjlittlefield]

Hah! Not just gears, but helical gears, with slanted teeth, the better to transfer torque smoothly.

Very clever, these bugs!

Excellent photos, as always...

--Rik

[Ramos Kenneth D]

Awesome images!

[Adalbert]

very nice

[Pau]

Magnificient!

[75RR]

"have gears coupling hind (jumping) legs to perfectly synchronize their movement"

An intriguing statement that only really comes to life when coupled with those amazing images.

[blepharopsis]

Thank you!

Magnificient!

[blepharopsis]

Thanks!

You may find more about the anatomy of jumping apparatus of planthoppers here: https://elifesciences.org/articles/23824 and see more examples of trochanteral cog wheels here: https://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/ ... per-gears/

"have gears coupling hind (jumping) legs to perfectly synchronize their movement"

An intriguing statement that only really comes to life when coupled with those amazing images.

[75RR]

You may find more about the anatomy of jumping apparatus of planthoppers here: https://elifesciences.org/articles/23824 and see more examples of trochanteral cog wheels here: https://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/ ... per-gears/

Thanks for the links!

“They have to synchronize their legs to move at exactly the same time, or else they’d go left or right instead of straight when they jump,” says Malcolm Burrows,
a professor emeritus of zoology at the University of Cambridge in England and co-discoverer of the gears, found in a species called Issus coleoptratus.

[iconoclastica]

“They have to synchronize their legs to move at exactly the same time, or else they’d go left or right instead of straight when they jump,” says Malcolm Burrows,
a professor emeritus of zoology at the University of Cambridge in England and co-discoverer of the gears, found in a species called Issus coleoptratus.

Thanks, I was wondering.
Great photos!

W°

[RogelioMoreno]

Igor,

Excellent images as always.

I would like to know if your confocal images are using the standard detector (3 or 4 channels) or using Spectral detector?

Rogelio

[blepharopsis]

Thank you Rogelio!

Zeiss LSM 980 has a spectral detector, yes.

I.

Igor,

Excellent images as always.

I would like to know if your confocal images are using the standard detector (3 or 4 channels) or using Spectral detector?

Rogelio