Hey! Are you curious about can fire ants jump because you heard or have seen some ants can jump out of the floor?
Actually, can fire ants jump?
Fire ants can not jump either using their legs or mandibles. Indeed, Trap-jaw ants and Gigantiops destructor ants can jump and lean both frontward and backward.
Well, it’s fair enough to think that fire ants can jump because of their aggressiveness. But the aggression is not the case in jumping ants. There is a mind-blowing technique that is even used in robotics! Let’s find them out.
Related: Do fire ants bite through clothes?
Which ants do jump & how do ants jump?
With being said that fire ants can not jump, which kind of ants can actually jump?
In spite of many insects having the leaping ability, only 6 ant genera of ants out of 300 have this capability.
Among those jumping ants the most recognized pair is Trap-jaw ants and Gigantiops destructor ants.
1. Trap-Jaw ants
In the beginning, biologists and researchers found that Trap-jaw ants can only jump backward using their mandibles.
However, they have now found that Trap-jaw ants can also jump forward in some cases, using their legs and controlling the weight center from their abdomen.
These Trap-jaw ants store up energy in their head or an elastic structure, and then press the mandibles down the floor and bring the energy down to the mandibles.
Once they press the mandibles, there will be a re-force on their body which pushes them off the floor real quickly.
Here’s a surprising fact.
Trap-jaw ants can be accelerated using their mandibles more than the acceleration of a bullet in a gun. And it has the highest acceleration from an insect of a particular size.
That’s how Trap-jaw ants turn out to be a jumping ants. Cool right?
2. Gigantiops destructor ants
This is a kind of jumping ant species that can be commonly found in the Amazon rainforest, jumping from one leaf to another.
It has got its name Gigantiops because of the giant eyes it has.
But there is a difference between these jumping ants and Trap-jaw jumping ants.
Unlike Trap-jaw ants, Gigantips do not use their mandibles to jump over. Instead, they use their legs and the abdomen to jump longer distances.
Usually, the center of mass of an ant is located between the abdomen and thorax.
But here’s the thing.
Gigantiops destructor ants have a comparatively larger abdomen than others. Because of that, their mass center is located a little further down than usual.
Hence, they are lifting their abdomen to develop a thrust on their bodies and stabilize the body rotation.
The more they lift their abdomen, more height, more speed they can jump.
They actually decide the gap of the space they have to jump and consider how much acceleration and lifting of the abdomen is required.
In footage of Ant Labs, they just holding a finger in front of a Gigantiops destructor ant. And it just jumps over and runs all over the hand.
And something even special about them is they just don’t follow the ant smell trail. In fact, experiments have found that these ants use the shapes they encounter to decide the path they have to follow.
How high can jumping ants jump?
Now, if you read the above explanation of how do ants jump, you can understand why fire ants can’t jump.
Fire ants do not have the strongest of mandibles like Trap-jaw ants or long legs that can lean to get a high elevation.
Now let’s take a look at how high these jumping ants can jump.
Jumping ants can jump up to 3.3 inches or 8.3 centimeters in the air, using their jaws or legs. It is approximately 7-8 times their natural height.
Why do ants jump?
I know you came here to see whether fire ants can jump. But i would also like to tell you why actually ants jump.
1. Run away from predators
Since ants are one of the tiniest insects, there are so many enemies and predators for ants.
Many of them have enough aggression to fight against enemies. But they might hesitate to fight back when they are isolated.
At that time they will use their mandible to flip over.
2. Just for passing obstacles
Since not all the ants have the ability to jump, this leaping ability is a real benefit for these ants.
Imagine there is some food that these ants need to target closer to a water surface. They can certainly skip the water surface and jump straight into the target.
Do fire ants fly?
Now the other part of the exciting fact. You already know that fire ants can’t jump. But do fire ants fly?
Winged fire ants called ‘alates’ can fly over 5 miles a day in the season of their mating. Once they mate, fire ant queens land on a new mound and build a new colony by leaving their wings.
Both male and female fire ants will have the opportunity to fly. And they are mating in the air when the females take their nuptial flights.
Do jumping ants bite?
If you have any kind of jumping ants in the house, you might worry about do jumping ants bite, because they look very strange to anyone.
Here is the answer.
Jumping ants in the house such as Trap-Jaw ants can bite and sting humans and pests. In the process, the ant holds the skin hard from its mandibles and can sting and bite several times.
The sting of a jumping ant such as a Trap-jaw ant can be very painful because it is more poisonous than the sting of a bee. In fact, the pain can last up to 3-4 hours, unlike the 10-minute pain of a bee.
Also Read: Do Fire Ants Survive Fire?