ANTS scale sheer surfaces to raid your kitchen counters and breakfast bar
using sticky pads between their claws that rapidly inflate and deflate.
Insects such as ants and bees need to make their feet sticky so they can run
up smooth surfaces but they must also be able to unstick them very quickly. Bert
H枚lldobler of the University of W眉rzburg in Germany and his colleagues
found that moving the insect鈥檚 legs pumps fluid into adhesive pads between their
claws. When the leg muscles relax the pads spring back.
To stop the pads being damaged on rough surfaces, insects might only use them
if their claws slip, the researchers suggest (Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, vol 98, p 6215).
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