Fire ants self-assemble into waterproof rafts to survive floods.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Mlot NJ
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3093451 | biostudies-literature | 2011 May
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Fire ants self-assemble into waterproof rafts to survive floods.
Mlot Nathan J NJ Tovey Craig A CA Hu David L DL
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20110425 19
Why does a single fire ant Solenopsis invicta struggle in water, whereas a group can float effortlessly for days? We use time-lapse photography to investigate how fire ants S. invicta link their bodies together to build waterproof rafts. Although water repellency in nature has been previously viewed as a static material property of plant leaves and insect cuticles, we here demonstrate a self-assembled hydrophobic surface. We find that ants can considerably enhance their water repellency by linki ...[more]
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