The predator with the fastest known bite in the animal kingdom is not the lion, the crocodile or the great white shark. Rather, the world’s most impressive mandibles belong to an ant native to Central and South America.
Biologists have discovered that the trap ant, Odontomachus bauri, closes its jaws in just 0.13 milliseconds, or 2,300 times faster than the blink of an eye. This translates to a speed of 35 to 64 meters per second, or 78 to 145 miles per hour.
More impressive than closing speed is force and acceleration. The researchers found that the jaws accelerate at 100,000 times the force of gravity, with each jaw generating forces that exceed 300 times the insect’s body weight. (Ants have typical body masses ranging from 12.1 to 14.9 milligrams, or about three-hundredths of a pound.)
Scientists note that this acceleration is huge compared to the tiny mass of the jaws, and is among the highest in the world. Although falcons can dive at speeds of up to 300 miles per hour, they must start from very high altitudes and work with gravity to reach those speeds. On the other hand, trap jaw ants rely entirely on energy stored in their own bodies.
The jaws of the trap jaw ant are controlled by a pair of huge contracting muscles in the head and held in place by a pair of latches. Jaws pop out when latches are released. The researchers explain that the use of a latch system allows the animals to obtain much faster speeds than with muscles alone. The analogy is shooting an arrow versus using a crossbow: the crossbow stores elastic energy, and a latch releases this energy almost instantly. As a result, the arrow shoots out very quickly and travels much farther.
Although trap-jaw ants use their mandibles to catch prey, another use is to escape other predators. By slamming their jaws against the ground, the ants can launch themselves into the air, reaching heights of up to 8.3 centimeters or horizontal distances of up to 39.6 centimeters. For a human being, that is equivalent to jumping a height of 44 feet or a horizontal distance of 132 feet. The path they take depends on the purpose of the jaw strike. Quickly escaping from a predator, the ant slams its mandibles against the ground to propel itself upward.
The ant can also use its mandibles on a large attacker, simultaneously escaping danger and injuring the intruder. When ants jump to escape damage, they are airborne for 0.22 to 0.27 seconds, often long enough to keep them away from a lizard’s tongue, which takes 0.11 to 0.28 seconds to attack. Additionally, several ants jumping at once can also serve to help them escape by confusing potential predators.
