Ensign Wasps - Weaver ants
LAUGHING AT GRAVITY
An Asian weaver ant (Oecophylla smaragdina) can dangle a weight more than 100 times heavier than itself without losing its grip...
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LAUGHING AT GRAVITY
An Asian weaver ant (Oecophylla smaragdina) can dangle a weight more than 100 times heavier than itself without losing its grip on the surface above it.
Credit: ? Thomas Endlein
An Asian weaver ant boasts not one but two superpowers: Its extreme sticking power comes with extraordinarily quick emergency grip protection, researchers have discovered.
The ants nest in trees, which they hold onto with their moist, expandable foot pads. The moisture isn?t a glue, but it lets the foot pads hold tight using capillary forces, the same phenomenon that allows water-soaked paper towels to cling to a window. When a branch quivers in the wind, an ant?s foot pads expand, strengthening their grip. By observing the pads of ant feet as the surface they stood on shook, Thomas Endlein of Scotland?s University of Glasgow discovered that the foot pad expansion occurs within a millisecond of the jolt.
Read less
An Asian weaver ant (Oecophylla smaragdina) can dangle a weight more than 100 times heavier than itself without losing its grip on the surface above it.
Credit: ? Thomas Endlein
An Asian weaver ant boasts not one but two superpowers: Its extreme sticking power comes with extraordinarily quick emergency grip protection, researchers have discovered.
The ants nest in trees, which they hold onto with their moist, expandable foot pads. The moisture isn?t a glue, but it lets the foot pads hold tight using capillary forces, the same phenomenon that allows water-soaked paper towels to cling to a window. When a branch quivers in the wind, an ant?s foot pads expand, strengthening their grip. By observing the pads of ant feet as the surface they stood on shook, Thomas Endlein of Scotland?s University of Glasgow discovered that the foot pad expansion occurs within a millisecond of the jolt.
Read less
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Photographer4322
December 26, 2015
I wouldn't have been able even to see these insects, let alone photograph them... Well done!
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