Bubbles Protect Against Predators

water droplets around a green bug on a green plant

Biological Strategy

Froghopper

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Image: Katja Schulz / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY - Creative Commons Attribution alone

Protect From Animals

Animals–organisms that range from microscopic to larger than a bus–embody a wide variety of harms to living systems, including other animals. They threaten through predation, herbivory, defense, and parasitism, and they compete for resources such as water, nutrients, and space. Any given living organism commonly faces threats from a variety of animals, requiring strategies that effectively defend from each. Trout and other bony fish, for example, escape predators by having scales made of very thin, flake-like pieces of bone covered with slippery mucus. They also have behavioral strategies such as camouflage, fast swimming, and twisting and turning to achieve release from a predator’s grip.

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Insects

Class Insecta (“an insect”): Flies, ants, beetles, cockroaches, fleas, dragonflies

Insects are the most abundant arthropods—they make up 90% of the animals in the phylum. They’re found everywhere on earth except the deep ocean, and scientists estimate there are millions of insects not yet described. Most live on land, but many live in freshwater or saltwater marshes for part of their life cycles. Insects have three distinct body sections: a head, which has specialized mouthparts, a thorax, which has jointed legs, and an abdomen. They have well-developed nervous and sensory systems, and are the only invertebrate that can fly, thanks to their lightweight exoskeletons and small size.

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Spittle bugs hide from predators within a froth of bubbles they produce.

Image: The Biomimicry Institute /

“Bubbles are commonly encountered in nature, across many phyla and habitats—from the slimy protective bubbles of the spittle bugs to the bubble eggs of many water-loving vertebrates, including many species of fish and amphibians, particularly frogs. Bubbles serve as insulation, moisturizer, and protection from predators. Spittle bugs use recycled sap from grass stems converted to a soapy liquid that they pump into foamy bubbles using their tails…Frog eggs and spittle bug bubbles self-cushion when packed in an array and naturally leave little air amongst them. This is because nature’s bubbles join according to three principles of soap bubble geometry. First, a compound bubble consists of flat or smoothly curved surfaces joined together. Second, the surfaces meet in only two ways: either three surfaces merge along a curve (edge), or six surfaces at a vertex. Third, when surfaces come together at a curve, or curves and surfaces at a point, they do so at equal angles. These three principles allow bubbles to eliminate air space between their flexible membranes, thereby optimally packing spheres.” (Biomimicry Guild unpublished report)

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