By Stephanie Pappas, Live Science
Contributor | May 11, 2017 07:41am ET
These are not bouncing bundles of
joy — the babies of trap-jaw ants are studded with spines, spires and
fleshy "doorknob" protuberances.
New research zooms in on these
bizarre larvae in more detail than ever before. Scientists used scanning
electron microscopy to describe the larval development of trap-jaw
ants,
a group of carnivorous ants known for its hair-trigger mandibles that deliver a
nasty bite.
It's the first time anyone has
described the development of these ants, and a rare type of study in the field
of ant research. Only 0.4 percent of the 16,000 known species of ants have had
their larval stages studied.
Snappy ants
Trap-jaw ants are in the genus
Odontomachus, a group of ants defined by their large mandibles, or jaws. The
jaws are locked open until something triggers the sensory hairs on them. Then,
they snap shut like Venus
flytraps. The jaws can move at a speed of 210 feet per second (64
meters per second), according
to 2006 research. The ants sometimes use their jaws as a
springboard to propel
themselves upward.
The ants' larvae are far less
mobile. They look like bulbous blobs covered in spiky hairs, and they hang out
in the ants' underground nests, literally suspended by little knobs on their
backs from the ceiling and walls.
A team of researchers led by
Daniel Solis, who studies social insects at São Paulo State University in
Brazil, used scanning electron microscopy to study the anatomy of the larvae of
three trap-jaw ant species: Odontomachus bauri, Odontomachus meinerti (both
found in Central and South America) and Odontomachus brunneus (found in the
southern United States).
Larval phase
The researchers found that
trap-jaw-ant larvae develop through three phases, or instars. Just after
hatching, the larvae are whitish-yellow, with few body hairs but bizarre
doorknob-shaped protuberances on their backs. In the second instar, the larvae
lengthen and slim down, turning gray-beige and growing more hair-like spines.
In the third instar, the doorknob protuberances vanish, but disc-like
protuberances dot the larvae's backs.
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