March 2 (UPI) --How did the trap-jaw ant evolve such a complex mechanism for snatching its prey? Today, the mandibles of trap-jaw ants take many forms, suggesting a tremendous level of anatomical ...

video: The animation shows the changes in form as the trap-jaw mechanism becomes more divergent from the ancestral form. The jaws (yellow) develop small projections that can latch onto the labrum ...

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, repeatedly, ...

The speedy mandibles of Strumigenys ants developed repeatedly throughout the world, explaining how evolution creates new abilities to help a species survive. Ants gather on a dewy peony bud. (Image ...

Most ants dextrously grasp and snip their food with a pair of chopstick-like mandibles. But trap-jaw ants are also capable of crashing their jaws together at blisteringly fast speeds, striking victims ...

When trap-jaw ants need to get out quick, they use their heads, not their legs to escape. This large species of Costa Rican ant smashes its jaw into the ground, causing the ant to catapult up and away ...

These tiny Temnothorax ants just successfully defended their nest entrance against an intruder (a giant Aphaenogaster ant) in Duke Forest, Hillsborough, NC. Magdalena Sorger The exploding ant is ...

Researchers have discovered a rare new miniature trap-jaw ant in the tropical forest of Ecuador in South America. The new insect has been named Strumigenys ayersthey after activist and artist Jeremy ...