A study on how spiders can jump exactly six times the length without going up

byArtur Rydzewski

Fly TRingoPhidippus regius which is a kind of is known for catching prey by taking advantage of good jump. A research team at the University of Manchester, UK said "How do flies do jumping"Scientific ReportsIt is announced in.

Energy and time optimal trajectories in exploratory jumps of the spider Phidippus regius | Scientific Reports
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-25227-9

How a spider jumps on its prey - science has the answer - BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43996959

The way Phidippus regius actually jumps can be seen from the following movies published by the University of Manchester.

Scientists train spider to jump on demand - YouTube


Phidippus regius which is a type of fly ribrapher is a small spider whose male is about 6 to 18 mm in length and female is about 7 to 22 mm in length. Phidippus regius was known to be able to jump many times the length of the body to catch prey, as the legendary jumping spider is known as the English name.

Mr. Mostafa R. A Nabawi, an aviation engineer at the University of Manchester, thought that it would be impossible to apply the phenomenal jumping power of spiders to robotics engineering, and four legal jumping spiders from Manchester pet shops I bought it. However, it seemed that only one had heard what was said in the four bought, and this honest spiderbird was given the name "Kim" by a research team led by Nabawi .


The research team jumped to Kim using the following equipment. Not only can you change the distance between the left and right platforms, it is also possible to change the height difference. In addition, we shot in slow motion how Kim jumps using an ultrahigh-speed camera that can shoot at 3200 frames per second.


When you look at the slow motion movie, you can see that Kim is jumping by extending the rear four limbs gently without running.





Kim was able to jump a distance that is about six times the body length at maximum with just leg power. In addition, when a human makes a long jump, the average jumpable distance is about 1.5 times his / her height.


It seems that it turned out that the power of about 5 times as much as its own weight was added to the spider's leg when jumping.


The spider is said to move the leg by the pressure of body fluid in addition to the muscle, but the research team led by Nabawi guessed through this experiment that "Fly Triumo is not using body fluid pressure to jump" It is. However, since it has not yet been clarified what kind of influence the spider's fluid pressure affects the movement of the muscles at the time of jumping, it is said that it has not been proved yet. In order to analyze the spider's anatomical structure, the research team created a 3DCG model by conducting a 3D scan of Kim's body with an accuracy of 0.0072 mm.


Also, it turned out that Kim changed its posture depending on the landing target. According to the research team, it has been pointed out that flies have changed the angle of the body to make more accurate jumps, there was also a difference in the time taken to take off and the initial speed.


Furthermore, paying attention to Kim's butt at the moment of jumping, when you jumped, you found out that you took out thread from the buttocks to the platform for takeoff and treat it like a lifeline.


The yarn also has a role to stabilize the posture while the flies are jumping in the air.


The research team at Manchester University will research "how fluid pressure of flies is affecting the jump" and "how jumps are contributing to the survival strategy of the flytrium" and ultimately the spider We have set the goal of developing a robot of the same size and structure as the one.