An image of a tiny ant carrying 100 times its own body weight - while hanging upside down from a glass-like surface – has scooped first prize in the inaugural Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) science photo competition.

The photograph was snapped in the Department of Zoology at Cambridge by a team investigating the extraordinarily sticky feet of ants and other insects.

Taken by Dr Thomas Endlein, the image shows an asian weaver ant, upside down on a smooth surface, carrying a 500mg weight in its jaws. The win nets Endlein £700-worth of vouchers for photographic equipment.

The photograph won first prize, says the BBSRC, because as well as being a beautiful image, it managed to convey complex science.

Weaver ants use their feet and their legs to achieve their sticky feats.

According to Dr Endelin: “Ants can change the size and shape of the pads on their feet depending on the load they are carrying. If they have to carry heavy loads they increase the contact area, and when they need to run they decrease it.”

The ants’ legs also play a part in the insects’ stickiness by making clever use of what scientists call “peeling forces”.

“If you think about peeling off sticky tape from a surface, it’s easiest when you peel at a steep, rather than a shallow, angle. Ants use the same mechanism: when they want to stick, they keep their legs at a shallow angle relative to the surface, and when they want to release their legs they increase this angle and peel off easily,” he says.

As well as shedding light on ants’ seemingly gravity-defying feats, the Cambridge research could help scientists develop better glues.

According to Dr Endelin: “The pads on ants’ feet are self-cleaning and can stick to almost any type of surface. No man-made glue or adhesive system can match this. Understanding how animals can control their adhesive systems should help us come up with 'clever' adhesives in the future.”

Weaver ants are the among the world’s most aggressive ant species. They build big colonies in the tops of trees and vigorously defend their nests and food plants.

Farmers in China and Southeast Asia have harnessed this aggression for the past 1,500 years, using the ants to control agricultural pests in their citrus orchards.

Following his work on ants in Cambridge, Dr Endelin has now moved to the University of Glasgow to study tree frogs and their sticky feet.
 


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