The trap-jaw ant is famous for its super-strong mandibles, which can crush prey, handle eggs, defend nests from intruders, and even fling the insect into the air.
Now, scientists have found that these acrobatics help the tropical ants escape from predators, in particular the deadly antlion.
The ants deploy this strategy by angling their jaws downward, says study co-author Andrew Suarez, an ant expert at the University of Illinois in Urbana. (Also see “Ant With Lightning Jaws Makes World’s Fastest Strike.”)
“They produce so much force that when they strike [a part of the ground] that’s relatively immovable, that force gets projected back on the ant and they go flying through the air,” says Suarez, who received funding from National Geographic’s Committee for Research and Exploration.
“It’s like popcorn. They go bouncing everywhere.”
And it turns out this behavior is good for more than entertaining entomologists.
Credit : National Geographic
Picture Credit : Google
