Cricket frogs belly flop their way across water

Cricket frogs were once thought to hop on the water’s surface. They actually leap in and out of the water in a form of locomotion called porpoising.

Jan 27, 2025 - 23:30

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Cricket frogs belly flop their way across water

Their motion is a build of "porpoising," leaping in and out of the water to lunge

Close-up listing of a cricket frog lying on a lily pad with its head and front legs extended into the water.

Cricket frogs (shown) jump in and out of the water to lunge all the contrivance in which thru it in plan of hopping on its floor, per a brand new seek.

Jake Socha

Cricket frogs can’t stroll (or hop) on water like as soon as notion.

Their bodies sink beneath the ground between successive jumps, researchers file in the November Journal of Experimental Biology. This mode of locomotion is a build of “porpoising,” when an animal leaps in and out of the water as it travels.

Eleven species of frogs relish been illustrious to hop atop the water’s floor. Nonetheless the motion hadn’t been studied in detail.

So biomechanist Talia Weiss and colleagues serene cricket frogs (Acris crepitans) from a swamp in North Carolina. Native to the jap half of the United States and northeastern Mexico, these critters are so diminutive that one can fit on a penny, says Weiss, formerly of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

The group filmed 5 frogs as they leapt all the contrivance in which thru water in a glass tank, in a whole of forty five trials. High-shuffle movies revealed that every frog starts with its body submerged, front legs by its aspects and benefit legs tucked. The frog then pushes off the water with its benefit legs, flying in an arc thru the air. As it descends, its front legs push ahead into an factual Superman pose, sooner than belly flopping into the water, Weiss says. At final, the frog pulls in its limbs to put together for the next jump.

Cricket frogs cyclically jump and belly flop their contrivance all the contrivance in which thru water. This high-shuffle video reveals their “porpoising” locomotion at traditional shuffle and at one-twentieth shuffle.

With every consecutive hop, the frogs traveled about 16 centimeters ahead and flew nearly 4 centimeters high. Their locomotion gave the impression of that of the leaping dolphins, seals and fish who porpoise to conserve energy.

The energy savings come from the diminished resistance animals face when touring thru air in comparison with the water, Weiss says. Porpoising “is a continual motion. They’re going ahead your whole time, they on occasion’re using their momentum to every other time and every other time jump out of the water and jump into the water.”

The cricket frogs, nonetheless, paused between jumps, differentiating their actions from extinct porpoising, Weiss says. The amphibians is also too unhurried or too small to snatch benefit of the ahead momentum they generate.