These bugs suck up their meals with an impressive amount of suction, and pee a lot to compensate. Froghoppers suction up their meals and pee them out at incredibly impressive rates.
that even if the insects “were on the top of the Statue of Liberty’s torch, they could have a straw going all the way down to the ground going into a glass of water, and they could be quite happily sucking it up.”
Froghoppers work immensely hard for their supper. The suctioning is not only incredibly labor intensive, but the xylem is so devoid of nutrition that they have to sip large amounts to sustain their tiny bodies—100 to 1000 times their own body weight in sap a day. Sometimes they’ll consume fluid for 24 hours straight.
All that sipping results in a whole lot of peeing. Froghoppers excrete so much fluid that they could probably drown themselves, which is why they’ve also developed another anatomical anomaly: a butt catapult that flicks pee drops safely out of reach from their bodies, two to four inches away. Though their process of feeding is laborious, froghoppers’ efforts pay off, even when feeding from the most difficult of plants. The team of scientists looked at how the bugs might fare with fluids of varying viscosities and pressures, and they seemed to do just fine.Hannah is a freelance science journalist, podcast writer, and poet based in Brooklyn. In addition to
Brasil Últimas Notícias, Brasil Manchetes
Similar News:Você também pode ler notícias semelhantes a esta que coletamos de outras fontes de notícias.
Susan Sontag, the Hunger Artist“I thought I was a student. I thought I was a teacher. And then I discovered that I liked to tell stories and make people cry,” Susan Sontag said. She was born on this day in 1933.
Consulte Mais informação »
Turkish finance minister sees single-digit inflation by mid-2023Turkey's annual inflation rate will be in single digits by the time presidential and parliamentary elections set for mid-2023 are held, Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati said on Saturday.
Consulte Mais informação »
Netflix raising U.S. prices, standard plan to top $15 a monthNetflix Inc. plans to raise its rates for streaming subscriptions in the U.S. and Canada for the second time during the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to huge...
Consulte Mais informação »
Power windfall tax is bad idea whose time has comeEuropean leaders are under pressure to help households with soaring power bills. Taxing energy companies is potentially ineffective and replete with unwise incentives. The idea could nevertheless catch on, and oil giants like BP and Shell may need to take the strain.
Consulte Mais informação »