The Biomechanics of the Jumping Flea In 1967, Henry Bennet-Clark
discovered that fleas store the energy needed to catapult
themselves into the air in an elastic pad made of resilin.
However, in the intervening years debate raged about exactly how
fleas harness this explosive energy. New research into how fleas
leap. "The insects transmit the force from the resilin spring in
the thorax through leg segments acting as levers to push down on
the tarsus and launch the 0.7 mg animals at speeds as high as
1.9 m s–1."