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A land-speed record for ants


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6 replies to this topic

#1 Offline brgz87 - Posted October 21 2019 - 4:40 AM

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Just wanted to share this here, I think is pretty damn cool  :o ...

 

Saharan silver ants have to be fast: they routinely sprint across burning desert sands in the midday heat to search for food. But now Sarah Pfeffer at Ulm University in Germany and her colleagues have shown that these tiny insects (Cataglyphis bombycina) are the fastest ants alive, attaining blistering speeds of 0.855 metres — 108 times their body length — in one second.

Video of the speedsters shows that despite having relatively short legs for desert ants, the Saharan silvers swing their legs an astonishing 47 strides a second in a smooth ‘galloping’ pattern that means the ants get all six legs off the ground at once. Precise coordination allows three legs to hit the ground nearly simultaneously, forming a stable tripod as the ant moves. Researchers suspect this stance help to prevent the ants from sinking into the dunes.

Thanks to this fancy footwork, the ants can hotfoot it across the shifting dunes — which reach temperatures of 60 ˚C at the surface — to scavenge the carcasses of less hardy insects.

 

 

Here's the link to the original article: https://www.nature.c...s&sf221875431=1


Edited by brgz87, October 21 2019 - 4:48 AM.

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#2 Offline Da_NewAntOnTheBlock - Posted October 21 2019 - 12:39 PM

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But will they do that if they aren't on burning hot sand is the million dollar question.

There is a important time for everything, important place for everyone, an important person for everybody, and an important ant for each and every ant keeper and myrmecologist alike


#3 Offline ANTdrew - Posted October 21 2019 - 3:22 PM

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I bet they can’t climb well if they’re desert ants, though.
"The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer." Prov. 30:25
Keep ordinary ants in extraordinary ways.

#4 Offline Da_NewAntOnTheBlock - Posted October 21 2019 - 3:23 PM

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yeah


There is a important time for everything, important place for everyone, an important person for everybody, and an important ant for each and every ant keeper and myrmecologist alike


#5 Offline FSTP - Posted October 22 2019 - 12:08 AM

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I bet they can’t climb well if they’re desert ants, though.

 

 

Yeah stupid ants thinking they're so cool being the fastest, but they can't even climb! 


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#6 Offline Manitobant - Posted October 22 2019 - 5:39 AM

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I bet they can’t climb well if they’re desert ants, though.

 
 
Yeah stupid ants thinking they're so cool being the fastest, but they can't even climb!
I'm guessing paratrechina longicornis would be the fastest on all terrain though.

#7 Offline ANTdrew - Posted October 22 2019 - 9:33 AM

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I bet they can’t climb well if they’re desert ants, though.



Yeah stupid ants thinking they're so cool being the fastest, but they can't even climb!
Lol! Such show-offs.
"The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer." Prov. 30:25
Keep ordinary ants in extraordinary ways.




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