That's Not Rain, That's Super-powered Pee! | Deep Look

Sharpshooters survive by guzzling a lot of plant sap. But drinking all of that liquid nutrition presents a problem for these tiny insects: How do they move it all out? Easy. They've perfected a super-propulsive urination technique using a special catapult in their butt.

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DEEP LOOK is an ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. See the unseen at the very edge of our visible world. Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small.

The sharpshooter gets all its nutrition from the thin, watery liquid inside a plant, called xylem sap, which it sucks out with this tube-shaped stylet. That sap has so little nutrition that sharpshooters need to guzzle nonstop. Taking all that liquid in presents a problem – how to move it out. The sharpshooter has evolved the perfect tool for the job: an anal stylus -- or butt flicker. Here's something incredible: Each drop of pee actually travels faster than the speed at which the butt flicker launched it. Learn about this incredible creature's super-propulsive pee in this video!

---+ The front end of the sharpshooter is interesting as well!

Elizabeth G. Clark of the University of California, Berkeley (@UCBerkeley), who worked with us on this episode, doesn’t just study the back end of the sharpshooter. She’s also extensively studied its feeding mechanism. She and her colleagues are trying to understand how sharpshooters feed so they can help stop their transmission of a bacterial plant pathogen called Xylella fastidiosa, which causes Pierce’s Disease. Check out Clark and team’s work in understanding the sharpshooter’s mouthparts and feeding
structures in this article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...

---+ Get inspired in your own backyard!

Georgia Tech (@georgiatech) researchers Saad Bhamla and Elio Chalita (now of @harvard) were instrumental in helping us (and the world!) understand the physics of sharpshooter pee. Bhamla was inspired to study sharpshooter urination after observing them peeing in his own backyard! Read about their team’s research here:
https://research.gatech.edu/super-fas...

---+ Find additional resources and a transcript on KQED Science:

https://www.kqed.org/science/1991514/...

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