Do grasshoppers have leg muscles similar to mamallian muscles?

Question

What about fleas? They can jump something like 900x the length of their body. Maybe it's 400x -- I forget.

Answer 1

Insects got simpler structure as compared to mammalians but in some ways leg muscles got some similarities in its functions. In grasshopper the two main leg muscles covered by exoskeleton ( as the femur and tibia) are the extensor tibia muscle which causes the leg to extend, and the flexor tibia muscle which causes the leg to flex. The extensor muscle from the back leg of an adult female can develop a force of up to 1.4 kg. This means that the muscle from one back leg of a grasshopper can lift almost a bag-and-a-half of supermarket sugar! Grasshoppers developed their very own catapults built into the back legs of every grasshopper which made them a good jumper..

Fleas are good jumpers, but have very small legs. The acceleration they need to get to their take-off velocity can be more than 3000 m.s-2 , they too use a catapult mechanism.

Visit this sites for further info:
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~wjh/jumping/legwrk.htm
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~wjh/jumping/compare.htm

Answer 2

No, insect muscles do not act the same way as human muscles.

Humans have flesh/muscle covering bone and work by pulling action. An arm bends because of biceps pulling the 2 bones together. The triceps pull back and cause the forearm and humerus to straighten.

Insects are different in that they have bone/exoskeleton covering their muscle.
They have 2 muscles within the exoskeleton leg that are called by their function: flexor and extensor. Imagine holding a pencil tip with your left hand using your index and thumb. Grab the center of the pencil with the other hand with the same fingers. Using your right hand, pull the center down while not moving your left hand. That is the same as an insect leg folding up. Now using your left hand, pull down the tip and you will notice the pencil becomes balanced again. That is the leg extending again.

The main difference between us and insects are where our muscles are located. We do not have muscles within bones because we need bigger muscles to suport our weight and no exo-skeleton can house the muscles without breaking. Also, we would have the shed our skeleton to grow; a very energetically costly move.


As far why they jump so far, I have no answer.

Answer 3

Because muscles cross section (a measure of its strength) increases in 2 dimensions and weight increases in three dimensions, a larger animal has to expend far greater energy to move. A human's muscles are actually much more efficient and stronger than a grasshoppers pound for pound but because of the size difference, humans obviously cannot jump as far relative to their height. If the grasshopper was scaled up to the weight of a human it would probably not even be able to move due to the weight of its exoskeleton and inefficient respiratory and muscular systems. Fleas being even smaller appear to be that much stronger. Assume I am 6 feet tall. If I were 12 feet tall, I would weigh 8 times (2x2x2) as much as I do yet the cross sectional area of my muscles would only be 4 times (2x2) as great (assuming I was proportional). It is this principle which explains why small animals appear to be so strong relative to their weight.

Answer 4

Yes, they do have leg muscles. They are attached at the femur and the tibia in similar fashion as a humans in order to produce movement and bend of the joint. Grasshoppers have both intrinsic and extrinsic muscles. They are extremely large and powerful in comparison to the size and weight of the insect. That allows for the extreme jumping ability.

Answer 5

No lol. To build muscle you need to fatigue the target muscles in less than 12 reps really. Add ankle weights and go for a walk...you'll be doing what 1000 continous reps? Forget about it.

Answer 6

Yes they do have but not like mamals but like insects