Expansion of the interlocking gears at the base of the hind legs of an Issus cicada
MECHANICAL GEARS have long been considered a mere product of human ingenuity. This view turned out to be wrong! Nested gears have been discovered in a living being: the little cicada Issus, found in gardens across Europe.
A young shooter can reach speeds of 3.9 meters per second in just two milliseconds, subjecting his body to nearly 200 times the force of gravity. It can disappear from sight in the blink of an eye. These jumps require the creature's two hind legs to exert exactly the same force at the same time. What is the secret of this precision?
Consider this: Scientists have discovered two interlocking gears at the base of the leafhopper's two hind legs. When the insect jumps, these gears ensure that the two legs are perfectly synchronized. Otherwise, a jump would turn into an uncontrolled spin!
When jumping, the biggest creatures rely on the nervous system to synchronize their legs. For young leafhoppers, however, the neural impulses would be very slow. Hence its two interlocking gears.We normally think of gears as something we see in man-made machines,The reason, is that we don't take a closer look.
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