Anatomy of the hind legs and actions of their muscles during jumping in leafhopper insects

Abstract

The rapid and simultaneous depression of the trochantera about the coxae of both hind legs of leafhoppers are the key joint movements powering a jump. The present study analyses the structure of these joints and the actions of the muscles that move them. The hind coxae are huge and are linked to each other at the midline by a protrusion from one coxa that inserts in a socket of the other and acts like a press-stud (popper) fastener. This asymmetry is not reflected in any left- or right-handed preference either within one species or between species. The movements of the joints in a jump are monitored by a number of possible proprioceptors that should be activated when a hind leg is fully levated in preparation for a jump: a hair row and two hair plates on the coxa, a hair plate on a trochanteral pivot with a coxa, and femoral spines at the femoro-tibial joint. The depressor and levator muscles that move the trochanter are of similar size and together occupy the greater part of the metathorax. Their lever arms are similar when the leg is fully levated, but the lever arm of the depressor increases with initial depression of the coxo-trochanteral joint while that of the levator declines. A jump is preceded by activity in the trochanteral depressor and levator muscles, which results in a forward movement of the coxa and metathorax with the trochanter fully levated. This period of co-contraction could result in storage of energy in skeletal structures in the thorax. Just before the rapid depression of the trochanter in the jump movement the frequency of depressor spikes increases while that in the levator declines, releasing any force stored by the preceding muscle contractions. These bursts of depressor spikes occur at the same time in the left and right muscles but none of the individual motor spikes appeared to be synchronous on the two sides.