By
Alex in
Animals & Pets,
Science & Tech on Aug 25, 2006 at 10:16 pm
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Biologists clocked the speed at which the trap-jaw ant closes its mandibles at 78 to 145 miles per hour – with the average duration of a strike about 0.13 milliseconds or 2,300 times faster than the blink of an eye!
The snapping jaws also enables the ants to catapault themselves to escape from enemies!
It’s no wonder, then, that O. bauri ants can launch themselves into the air with a mere snap of their jaws, achieving heights up to 8.3 centimeters and horizontal distances up to 39.6 centimeters. That roughly translates, for a 5-foot-6-inch tall human, into a height of 44 feet and a horizontal distance of 132 feet, an aerial trajectory likely to be the envy of circus acrobats and Olympic athletes.
Link – via Olgui
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