Trap-jaw ants use a spring-loaded mechanism to release their mandibles at insane speeds. (Image credit: Reproduced with permission of The Company of Biologists. Sutton, G. P., ...

Trap-jaw ants have long been a source of fascination for Fred Larabee, a postdoctoral researcher at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and lead author of a cutting-edge paper ...

It is thought the Florida ants eat the trap-jaw ants—the body parts left over are normally hollowed out. Florida's skull-collecting ant, Formica archboldi, next to trap-jaw ant body parts.

For 60 years, scientists have known that one species of small, rust-colored ant known as Formica archboldi likes to decorate its nests with skulls, or head cases, of several kinds of trap-jaw ants.

Then there are the trap-jaw ants of the genus Odontomachus, which prefer—oh, I don’t know—not blowing themselves to pieces.As their name would suggest, these ants have remarkable mandibles ...

Trap-jaw ants don't just jump, a rarity among ants, they have actually been observed jumping in three distinct ways. Skip to main content Skip to main menu Skip to search Skip to footer.

As its name implies, the trap-jaw ant has an incredibly powerful chomp. As they bite down, their mandibles travel at an astonishing rate of 130 feet per second (40 m/s), with a total elapsed time ...

Adult trap-jaw ant mandibles snap shut when something touches the hair-like sensors inside them. They can move at speeds up to 210 feet (64 meters) per second. Developing head.

Trap-jaw ants have large mandibles that spring shut incredibly quickly, at speeds above 130 mph, generating a force 300 times greater than their body weight.

Powerful and deadly, the bite of a trap-jaw ant is renowned throughout the animal kingdom. Unlike normal gripping jaws, which rely on muscles to open and close, the trap-jaw latches itself open ...

Trap-jaw ants can slam their jaws together with extraordinary speed, with the tips of their mandibles racing at up to roughly 120 miles per hour. How they could perform such attacks, ...

Suarez and his colleagues focused on the trap-jaw ant, Odontomachus bauri.Since the 1800s, researchers had seen these ants zing through the air based on the power of their incredibly strong jaws.