Nature’s top excavator may be the red fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, the invasive, stinging creature that has taken over the lower third of the United States with its intricate mounds, tunnels and homes built with precision in nearly any kind of soil, Discover News reports.
The fire ant’s digging prowess taps the same concepts behind kids’ building blocks, according to a new study that looks at the micro-mechanics of their ability to move giant particles in tiny spaces.
“They love to dig,” said Daniel Goldman, physics professor at Georgia Tech and an author on the paper in this week’s Journal of Experimental Biology.
Goldman and his colleagues conducted several lab experiments with fire ants using different size particles of sand and tiny glass pellets. They also took X-rays of the ants’ tunnels and found something surprising. The ants carefully constructed the tunnel walls like Jenga blocks, each particle precariously supporting the one on top. When the researchers probed the tunnels with a metal rod, they collapsed, just like the kids’ wooden tower.
Source: Discovery News
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