Aug. 21, 2006 — The horn-like jaws of the trap-jaw ant snap shut at a speed of 78 to 145 mph, qualifying as the fastest known moving body parts, according to new research.
The jaws snap together with a force strong enough to hurl the ant 3 inches into the air and 8 1/2 inches away, the equivalent of a 5’6" human jumping 44 feet in the air and soaring for 132 feet.
"The ants generate their extreme (jaw) speeds through the use of power amplification – a combination of springs and latches which allow the animals to store up and release energy within their own body," said lead author Sheila Patek, who indicated that the system has an "internal damping" mechanism that prevents the powerful snap from crushing the ant.
"Trap-jaw ants slowly contract large muscles while a pair of latches keep the jaws open. Once the muscles are fully contracted, the latches are released and the jaws close explosively," she explained to Discovery News.
The findings are published in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Patek and her team at the University of California at Berkeley studied worker ants of species Odontomachus bauri, collected in Costa Rica. Co-author Andrew Suarez told Discovery News that similar ants live in Florida and Arizona, but this particular species is only found in Central America and northern South America.
