Simone Biles has a rival — a tiny bark beetle (but it can't stick the landing)

There is a new move in gymnastics.

The thing about this jump is that it takes off from a push-up position. Jessica O'Beirne, host of GymCastic: the Gymnastics Podcast, said that it basically goes from playing dead to launching itself like Simone Biles.

An athlete is not a traditional competitor. The bark beetle lives in dead or dying trees and is a quarter of an inch long.

O'Beirne said that the larva would get a deduction for rotating off center in the twists and for just falling over when it lands. I would give it a 9 or 9.1. The difficulty score is going to be huge. It's doing really well, because it's going to compete with Simone's double pike vault in the difficulty area.

The new jumping behavior was discovered by researchers.

A rotting oak tree was spotted on the North Carolina State University campus by an entomologist who wrote a paper on the find.

"So, I started going up there and taking the bark off, collecting all the insects that were there," he said. They would crawl for a while and then hop. I didn't know if I was seeing things or not.

The bark beetle Laemophloeus biguttatus is found in Central and North America.

Matt Bertone and Matt Shipman.

Adrian Smith, head of the Evolutionary Biology & Behavior Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, was asked if he wanted to film something weird.

Smith said that his answer is always going to be yes.

The two used high-speed video to capture the jump.

Larvae can't jump like humans. They arch the middle of their bodies into the air by gripping the ground with their legs. That creates energy.

The bark beetle's claws are used to build up energy for their acrobatics.

Adrian Smith and Matt Shipman.

Smith said it was like a mousetrap. You build it by pulling back the swinging arm. When it's triggered, the latch releases all the stored energy.

When the larvae let go, they spin into the air with a takeoff speed of up to two miles per hour.

"They do a somersault and then land on the ground and start walking again," he said.

The longest jump was just over an inch in length. The scientists gave a play-by-play of the previously un recorded move.

Why do the larvae do this, besides to inspire Biles' next feat? One idea is that they jump to avoid being eaten.

Whatever the reason, O'Beirne says the larva still need to work on sticking the landing.

O'Beirne said it was for sure making the podium. It's not going to help it if it just rolls off the ground into the judges.