Tuesday 19 May 2015

Ants use jaws to catapult themselves out of death traps

Science Focus

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The trap-jaw ant has a won notorious reputation in the insect kingdom for its super-strong, spring-loaded mandibles, which it uses to crush prey with ease and defend its nests.

However, a new study, reported in PLOS ONE, has revealed a whole new use for its impressive jaws: flinging itself out of "death traps" set by predators.

Research carried out by Fredrick Larabee and Andrew Suarez, entomologists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, compounds earlier findings from 2006, which showed that trap-jaw ants could use their lightning-fast mouths for "ballistic jaw propulsion"—in short, opening their jaws to 180 degrees before snapping them shut at 140 miles per hour.

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 » see original post http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/science/~3/--Gpuyb7qoo/
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