The male leaproaches are barely longer than a centimetre, and the females are shorter still. But they cover up to 35 centimetres in a single bound – that’s 48 times a female’s body length. For comparison, the German cockroach can only cover 4 centimetres in a jump, or 3 body lengths. Even locusts can only cover 20 body lengths (although the record-breaking froghoppers can manage 114 of them).