Startling stickiness:
How ants and bees adhere with amazing machinery
Designed that way
by Jonathan Sarfati
How do ants and bees walk upside down, an essential skill for walking on plants?
Not only must their feet be able to stick, but also become unstuck at the right
time so they can move quickly.
A University of Massachusetts team has now shown the amazing way they do this, using
high-speed photography on honeybees and weaver ants walking on glass, and studying
the foot structure under a microscope. The foot has a moist pad (arolium), which
can stick to a surface like wet paper to a window. This is between two claws, shaped
like a bull’s horns. If the surface is rough, the claws can catch onto a surface,
and the arolium is retracted because it’s not needed, and is protected from
abrasion. But on a smooth surface where the claws can’t catch onto anything,
they retract via the claw flexor tendon, which also causes the arolium to rotate
and extend into position. This tendon also connects to a plate that squeezes a reservoir
of ‘blood’ (hemolymph), forcing the liquid into the arolium to inflate
it, so it presses on the surface.
When the foot needs to become unstuck, the claw flexor tendon is released, and the
arolium and many of the mechanical parts are so elastic that they quickly spring
back into place. The same basic mechanism applies to both bees and ants, but they
have some differently shaped parts because of their different requirements.
This is a very complex mechanical and hydraulic design, but controlled very simply,
without any brain input. This enables high reliability and very fast reaction times.
Not surprisingly, this has intrigued designers of miniature robots for medical purposes.
This would not be the first time that mankind has copied God’s original ingenious
created design—usually without giving Him the glory. The ‘inventor’
of Velcro, for instance, was inspired by a similar system in plants. The animal
kingdom had jet propulsion long before any person thought of it, and lobster eyes
have inspired x-ray telescopes (see Lobster Eyes: brilliant
geometric design, Creation 23(3):12–13,
2001), to name but a few. The more our increasingly sophisticated research techniques
enable us to find out about creation, the more we discover of the brilliance, depth
and ingenuity of God’s original created designs, which man then struggles
to copy.
Further reading
References and notes
- Schubert, C., Insects deploy sticky feet with precision, Science News,
2 June 2001, p. 341.
-
A sticky situation for ants and bees: UMass biologist looks at how these insects
adhere to various surfaces, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 17 December
2001.
- Federle, W. et al, Biomechanics of the movable pretarsal adhesive organ
in ants and bees, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA
98(11):6215–6220, 22 May 2001.
(Available in Haitian Creole)
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