News in Brief Animals

In emergencies, fire ants get lots of grips to form rafts

Inside look at how insects make instant architecture shows the power of extreme grabbing

BODY BUILDING  Fire ants can join forces to form rafts (shown). They do so by gripping one another with 99 percent of the legs available in the mass of ants, a new study finds. 

Courtesy of D. Hu

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

The first scan inside a tight ball of fire ants shows that crisscrossing grips and the absence of slackers makes living rescue rafts.