Velcro ants can hold down moths 10,000x their weight

If you don’t yet subscribe to Not Exactly Rocket Science then you may not have seen these amazing pictures yet. Teams of teeeny-weeny ants gripping hoooge insects on fluffy leaves using teeeny nippers and the ‘velcro principle’.

the best tiny use of velcro since dwarf tossing

Ambush ants capture giant prey using Velcro principles

In the Brazilian rainforest, a grasshopper lands on a leaf and seals its fate. It was after a quick meal, but this leaf belongs to the Cecropia obtusa plant and it employs hidden bodyguards – ants. Underneath its leaves, thousands of Azteca andreae ants lie in ambush, poised at the edges with their jaws outstretched. As soon as the grasshopper lands, the ants rush out from their hiding places, seize it by the legs and pull it spread-eagled.  The leaf turns into a medieval torture rack, with the ambushers holding the victim while their nestmates bite, sting and dismember it.

This hunting strategy is all the more amazing when you consider that the ants weigh just over a milligram each while their prey – including grasshoppers and moths – can weigh up to 10 grams. via Ambush ants capture giant prey using Velcro principles | Not Exactly Rocket Science | Discover Magazine.

About caspar

Caspar is just one monkey among billions. Battering his keyboard without expectations even of peanuts, let alone of aping the Immortal Bard. By day he is an infantologist at Birkbeck Babylab, by night he runs BabyLaughter.net
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