Nature & Environment
Watch How These Ants Use Their Powerful Mandibles to Escape the Jaws of Death (VIDEO)
Catherine Griffin
First Posted: May 14, 2015 08:51 AM EDT
How do ants increase their chances of survival? They use their jaws. Scientists have discovered that some species of trap-jaw ants use their spring-loaded mandibles to hurl themselves out of harm's way.
The mandibles of the trap jaw ant, Odontomachus brunneus, can actually whip shut at speeds of over 40 meters per second, which is 144 kilometers per hour. This instantly maims a prey insect or enemy ant. In addition, their jaws are used for digging nests or tending to eggs and larvae.
Previous studies found that these ants sometimes jump with their jaws. However, researchers weren't sure whether this behavior actually improved their odds of surviving and encounter with a predator. That's why scientists decided to take a closer look.
Pit-building antlions have a two-part strategy for capturing their ant prey. First, they dig conical pits in the sand and bury themselves at the bottom of the pit to wait for a victim. When an ant falls into the pit, the sand crumbles beneath its feet as it tries to run away. This pulls it closer to the center of the pit where the antlion is waiting.
The antlion also has a second strategy; it hurls sand at the ant, causing a tiny avalanche that further destabilizes its target.
In this latest study, the researchers dropped trap-jaw ants into antlion pits. They found that the ants usually tried to run out of the pit and sometimes were successful. If that failed, though, the ants jumped with their jaws.
"The ants were able to jump out of the pits about 15 percent of the time in their encounters with antlions," said Fredrick Larabee, one of the researchers, in a news release. "But when we glued their mandibles shut before dropping them in the pits, they couldn't jump at all. It cut their survival rate in half."
The findings reveal that these ants can use their jaws for different purposes-including escaping from death.
The findings are published in the journal PLOS One.
Want to see the leaping ants for yourself? Check out the video below, courtesy of YouTube.
For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
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First Posted: May 14, 2015 08:51 AM EDT
How do ants increase their chances of survival? They use their jaws. Scientists have discovered that some species of trap-jaw ants use their spring-loaded mandibles to hurl themselves out of harm's way.
The mandibles of the trap jaw ant, Odontomachus brunneus, can actually whip shut at speeds of over 40 meters per second, which is 144 kilometers per hour. This instantly maims a prey insect or enemy ant. In addition, their jaws are used for digging nests or tending to eggs and larvae.
Previous studies found that these ants sometimes jump with their jaws. However, researchers weren't sure whether this behavior actually improved their odds of surviving and encounter with a predator. That's why scientists decided to take a closer look.
Pit-building antlions have a two-part strategy for capturing their ant prey. First, they dig conical pits in the sand and bury themselves at the bottom of the pit to wait for a victim. When an ant falls into the pit, the sand crumbles beneath its feet as it tries to run away. This pulls it closer to the center of the pit where the antlion is waiting.
The antlion also has a second strategy; it hurls sand at the ant, causing a tiny avalanche that further destabilizes its target.
In this latest study, the researchers dropped trap-jaw ants into antlion pits. They found that the ants usually tried to run out of the pit and sometimes were successful. If that failed, though, the ants jumped with their jaws.
"The ants were able to jump out of the pits about 15 percent of the time in their encounters with antlions," said Fredrick Larabee, one of the researchers, in a news release. "But when we glued their mandibles shut before dropping them in the pits, they couldn't jump at all. It cut their survival rate in half."
The findings reveal that these ants can use their jaws for different purposes-including escaping from death.
The findings are published in the journal PLOS One.
Want to see the leaping ants for yourself? Check out the video below, courtesy of YouTube.
For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone