News Animals

Froghoppers are the super-suckers of the animal world

Tiny insects can produce negative pressures equivalent to people sucking a 100-meter-long straw

a small insect sitting on a leaf

Froghoppers feed exclusively on xylem sap from plants. To access this nutrient-poor liquid, the insects generate extreme suction power.

Philip G.D. Matthews

By Jonathan Lambert

- More than 2 years ago

To tap an unlikely source of nutrition, insects small enough to sit on a pencil eraser have to suck harder than any known creature.