At higher speeds, the ants would even gallop, leaving all of their feet simultaneously off the ground at certain points. Watch "monster" ants attack faster than the blink of an eye. So why go so fast? Pfeffer and her team suggest thei ants' speed allows them to find and scavenge its meals quickly and efficiently. When the ant comes across a corpse, it carves up the body and takes some of the parts back to its underground nest to eat in peace.
Learn more about the Sahara silver ant. The fast strides and limited contact with the sand may also prevent them from sliding or sinking into dunes as they look for food, the study says. See photos of amazing desert wildlife. All rights reserved. Among the largest of the wolf spiders, Carolina wolf spiders come out at night to hunt prey. Share Tweet Email. Read This Next Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London.
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To do that, scientists often base relative speed on body lengths per second. This fleet-footed desert-dweller can run at a staggering times its own body length per second.
The ants are able to achieve such breakneck speeds thanks to legs that move at an exceptional velocity. Indeed, swing rates of 1, mm Saharan silver ants have good reason to get from A to B in the quickest time they can. This is exacerbated by the fact that they often venture out at the hottest part of the day as they scavenge for other small animals who have succumb to the midday sun. To keep contact with the scorching sand to a minimum, they only stay out of their underground nests for around 10 minutes.
To cover as much ground as possible in that brief window, they have evolved a galloping gait which means there are brief interludes when all of their feet are in the air. By Michael Marshall. Life is a sprint for the Saharan silver ant.
The Saharan silver ant Cataglyphis bombycina has one of the most extreme lifestyles of any insect. Most animals find shelter at the hottest times of day, but this is when Saharan silver ants venture outside. In a furious burst of activity that may be as short as 10 minutes , they scavenge for insects and other small animals that have fallen victim to the heat.
It has been clear since the s that they run very fast, says Sarah Pfeffer at Ulm University in Germany. Pfeffer and her colleagues have now measured how fast Saharan silver ants run using high-speed video.
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