Nature & Environment
Fire Ants Have the Ability to Form Stretchable Floating Rafts
Benita Matilda
First Posted: Nov 27, 2013 03:40 AM EST
Scientists have discovered how fire ants form a floating raft. These ants reform and realign constantly to withstand external forces.
Fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) are known to struggle in water when single, but when they assemble as a group they form a floating waterproof raft that can float effortlessly on the surface of rising waters for a long time. Using claws, jaws and adhesive pads present on their legs, they secrete an oily fluid that sticks to the smooth surface. They have an unusual property called viscoelasticity, which allows them to resist the stress and also bounce back to the original position.
According to the study led by Zhongyang Liu, an undergraduate student in the laboratory of Georgia Tech mechanical engineer and biologist David Hu, the live rafts of the fire ants can reshuffle and change their structure. This unseen trait permits the tiny ants to effectively guard themselves against any harsh force coming from outside such as raindrops or even the gush of waves.
"The linkage structure they form, similar to a truss structure, is elastic and so is able to sustain external forces," Liu said in a statement.
The fire ants repeatedly alter the structure of the raft by changing their body part connections to protect against the applied force. The constant shuffling of the ants in the rafts allows them to store energy and dissipate energy in comparable degrees. This is not seen in any other active materials, not even in bacteria films.
The rafts that are formed of dead ants fail to display such a similar structure and rather behave like a solid viscoelastic material.
Liu says, "This is our most important discovery. The special structure formed by the ants might inspire new research in material science."
This intelligence of the ants can be applied in robotic research. This finding will be presented at the upcoming American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics (DFD) meeting in Pittsburgh, Pa.
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First Posted: Nov 27, 2013 03:40 AM EST
Scientists have discovered how fire ants form a floating raft. These ants reform and realign constantly to withstand external forces.
Fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) are known to struggle in water when single, but when they assemble as a group they form a floating waterproof raft that can float effortlessly on the surface of rising waters for a long time. Using claws, jaws and adhesive pads present on their legs, they secrete an oily fluid that sticks to the smooth surface. They have an unusual property called viscoelasticity, which allows them to resist the stress and also bounce back to the original position.
According to the study led by Zhongyang Liu, an undergraduate student in the laboratory of Georgia Tech mechanical engineer and biologist David Hu, the live rafts of the fire ants can reshuffle and change their structure. This unseen trait permits the tiny ants to effectively guard themselves against any harsh force coming from outside such as raindrops or even the gush of waves.
"The linkage structure they form, similar to a truss structure, is elastic and so is able to sustain external forces," Liu said in a statement.
The fire ants repeatedly alter the structure of the raft by changing their body part connections to protect against the applied force. The constant shuffling of the ants in the rafts allows them to store energy and dissipate energy in comparable degrees. This is not seen in any other active materials, not even in bacteria films.
The rafts that are formed of dead ants fail to display such a similar structure and rather behave like a solid viscoelastic material.
Liu says, "This is our most important discovery. The special structure formed by the ants might inspire new research in material science."
This intelligence of the ants can be applied in robotic research. This finding will be presented at the upcoming American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics (DFD) meeting in Pittsburgh, Pa.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone