homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Sharpshooter insects catapult pee droplets using their butts to save energy

You don't want to get on the bad side of these bugs.

Tibi Puiu
February 28, 2023 @ 9:41 pm

share Share

harpshooter insect with pee droplet excreta on the anal stylus. Credit: Bhamla Lab, Georgia Tech.

Sharpshooter insects are a fascinating group of insects that belong to the Cicadellidae family. True to their name, these tiny insects are known for the incredible accuracy with which they shoot droplets of urine from their bodies at extremely high speed. In fact, that’s mostly what they do all day as they are known to excrete 300 times their own body weight per day in pee.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta zoomed in on the behinds of these remarkable leafhoppers and in the process unveiled some striking new insights. According to the new findings presented today in the journal Nature Communications, sharpshooters are able to eliminate such high volumes of waste by employing droplet superpropulsion, a mechanism that allows the insects to launch urine out of their bodies quickly and energy-efficiently rather than releasing a jet stream like other members of the Cicadellidae family.

Sharpshooters, which measure just a few millimeters in length, enjoy feeding on the sap of xylem, the vein-like tube that plants use to transport water and nutrients from the roots up the plant stem and into the leaves. This is not very nutritious food. In fact, it’s mostly water, which is why the insects have to consume a lot of sap. But what goes in must come out, so the sharpshooters have to pee frequently — a whole lot! They eliminate hundreds of times their body weight per day, compared to just 2.5% of daily body weight for humans.

Peeing that much, that often must be a lot of work. How do the sharpshooters do it without exhausting themselves?

Saad Bhamla and colleagues analyzed 22 waste ejections from five glassy-winged sharpshooters (Homalodisca vitripennis) using computational fluid dynamics and biophysical experiments. They came to the conclusion the insects use superpropulsion — an excretion mechanism that involves tuning the insect’s “butt flicker” to the frequency of the urine output. Instead of a stream of liquid waste as seen in other insects, the sharpshooters essentially launch urine droplets with 40 G’s worth of acceleration.

“Little is known about the fluid dynamics of excretion, despite its impact on the morphology, energetics, and behavior of animals,” Bhamla said. “We wanted to see if this tiny insect had come up with any clever engineering or physics innovations in order to pee this way.”

According to Bhamla, superpropulsion is a very powerful design that is rarely seen in engineering and has never been detected in an organism until now. Most likely, this mechanism appeared due to natural selection, which pressured the insects to find a solution to their frequent excretion. When the sharpshooter’s anal stylus oscillates rapidly and in tune with the frequency of the urine droplets, up to eight times less energy is required to expel waste than if they were spraying the urine in jets.

Learning more about the secret method that sharpshooters use to expel their waste is not only worth pursuing from a biology standpoint. The findings could inspire other scientists with ideas for similar energy-saving tricks for soft robots or self-cleaning structures. 

share Share

The World's Oldest Known Ant Is A 113-Million-Year-Old Hell Ant with Scythe Jaws

A remarkable find for ant history was made, not in the field but in a drawer.

Your Cells Can Hear You — And It Could Be Important for Fat Cells

Researchers explore the curious relationship between sound and gene expression in cell cultures.

16,000-Year-Old Dog-Like Skeleton Found in France Raises Haunting Questions

Cared for like a companion, or killed like prey?

Japanese Scientists Just Summoned Lightning with a Drone. Here’s Why

The drone is essentially a mobile, customizable, lightning rod.

Tiny Chinese Satellite Sent Hack-Proof Quantum Messages 12,900 Kilometers Through Space. Is a Quantum Internet Around the Corner?

The US and Europe are now racing to catch up to China.

Cats Came Bearing Gods: Religion and Trade Shaped the Rise of the Domestic Cat in Europe

Two groundbreaking studies challenge the old narrative that cats followed early farmers into Europe.

The People of Carthage Weren’t Who We Thought They Were

The Punic people had almost no genetic ties to Phoenicians, even though the latter founded the great city of Carthage.

RFK Jr loves raw milk. Now, he's suspending milk quality tests due to Trump cuts

Imagine pouring a glass of milk for your child and wondering if it’s safe.

A Roman gladiator died fighting a lion in England and his 1,800-year-old skeleton proves it

It's the first-ever evidence of man-lion combat found in the Roman period.

This Surprising Protein Shift Could Add Years to Your Life, Study Finds

A global study ties plant protein to longer adult lives, but early life needs differ.