Gears are ubiquitous in the man-made world, found in items ranging from wristwatches to car engines, but it seems that nature invented them first. A species of plant-hopping insect, Issus coleoptratus ...

This planthopper can jump fast, far, and repeatedly. How does it manage to jump so well? Biologists decided to find out — and they realized that this insect has literal interlocking gears in its legs.

Gears are ubiquitous in the man-made world, found in items ranging from wristwatches to car engines, but it seems that nature invented them first. A species of plant-hopping insect, Issus coleoptratus ...

Many mechanical devices have been inspired by examples in nature, but it’s not often that nature replicates something only known to be made by human beings. Meet Issus coeleoptratus, more commonly ...

This complex arrangement of rods and interlocking gears is the hip joint of an immature planthopper insect. It’s the only instance of functioning, interlocking gears that has been found in nature, at ...