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Quirks and Quarks

Ant Uses Spring-loaded Jaw to Jump From Danger

The Trap-jaw ant's powerful jaw can be used to help it escape from predators

Ant jaws its way out of trouble

CBC Radio ·
Trap-jaw ant (Adrian Smith/Frederick Larabee)
The trap-jaw ant looks like many other ants, with one exception - it has powerful, spring-loaded jaws. The jaws open to 180 degrees and can snap shut at incredible speed.

The jaws are usually used for gathering food to bring back to the nest, but the trap-jaw ant has adapted its jaws as a mechanism for self-defence. Frederick Larabee, a PhD candidate in the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois, found that the ant uses its jaws to escape from the sandy den of its main predator, the ant-lion.

The ant positions its jaws against the side of the pit, then snaps them shut. The force of that closure pushes back against the ant and propels it out of the den. It is a primary example of evolutionary co-option, where a trait for one purpose has evolved to serve another function.             

Relates Links

- Paper in PLoS One
- University of Illinois release
- National Geographic story
- Discover magazine story
 

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