Meeting Abstract
When unconstrained and from an inverted position, click beetles (Coleoptera:Elateridae) fold their body extremely rapidly to propel themselves into the air. This unique legless jumping mechanism is enabled by a thoracic hinge and is power amplified. The jump is divided into three stages: the pre-jump (energy storage), the take-off and the airborne stage (energy release). In this presentation, we answer the following questions: what are the dominant kinematic and the external morphological parameters driving the jump, how are they correlated and what is their respective contribution to the jump performance? The morphological measurements of 88 specimens from 13 genera, namely Aeolus mellilus, Agriotes sp., Alaus myops, Alaus oculatus, Athous sp., Ampedus linteus, Ampedus nigricollis, Hemicrepidius sp., Lacon Marmoratus, Limonius sp., Melanactes sp., Melanotus sp., Parallelosthetus attenuatus, of various sizes and shapes (body length varying from 2 to 35 mm) were taken. The take-off and airborne stages of the jumps of 54 specimens from 11 of these genera were recorded using high-speed video imaging. All videos were post-processed using ProAnalyst and Matlab software to derive kinematic jumping parameters of each specimen. From the morphological measurements, we show isometric scaling across species. Kinematic parameters such as the take-off velocity, acceleration and angle as well as morphological measurements such as the body length, mass, and elytra curvature for each specimen are used to compare the jump performance within and across species.
