Mantis is King No More

[lemures-ex]

I've had this article sitting on my desk for a week now but I couldn't find anything online.

The Trap-Jaw Ant (Odontomachus bauri) apparently now holds the record for the fastest known movement in the animal kingdom. This newspaper article from AP reporter Randolph E. Schmid talks about the ants ability to snap it's (very viscious looking) jaws shut at speeds up to 145mph with an averave strike time of 0.13 milliseconds. Apparently the ant is even capable of throwing itself up to 3.2 inches upward and 15.6 inches sideways by snapping its jaws at the ground.

The article even mentions "the mantis shrimp, former record holder for fastest strike, according to researchers led by Sheila Patek, assistant porfessor of integrative biology at UC Berkeley." This is probably old news to Dr. Roy

Just thought the rest of you might be interested in this odd bit of biology.

 

[Fella]

But when you compare that the ant isn't underwater, then the mantis still wins for me

 

[lemures-ex]

hehe, I wasn't saying the ant is better, just that it's faster in its natural habitat (land).

The ant may be faster even in water though. I imagine it would be easier to test the ant under water then the mantis on land...

 

[lemures-ex]

There's more images on Google images as well:

http://images.google.com/images?q=trap-jaw+ant&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

Pretty ferocious looking eh?

 

[DaddyJax]

I wonder about the power? Does it hit with the same, more or less?

 

[lemures-ex]

Well more speed means more power. Of course it is relative since the ant is quite a bit smaller then the mantis.

 

[30mini]

and the mantis hits in water, and this guy is in air! Air is a lot less resistive than water is! Keep that in mind as well. I guarantee that the mantis hits harder than this guy out of water!! If I can find my conversion chart, I should be able to figure this out

 

[Crawling68]

Ants are lame. I would much rather have my mantis' then an ant! LOL!

 

[lemures-ex]

30mini: Fella already brought that up, and like I said we are reffering to the animals in their natural habitat.

Crawling68: No argument there

 

[JmLee]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8069524#post8069524 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Crawling68
Ants are lame. I would much rather have my mantis' then an ant! LOL!

lol

 

[ShiftNation]

Dam and I thought mantises were nasty looking .

 

[lemures-ex]

ShiftNation: What about some of us humans?

 

[mickey85]

I would be interested knowing how fast a mantis could hit if it was out of water - i.e. how much faster it would be. And I don't know if the ant would be stronger, relatively. I mean, if you could measure it, then compare it pound for pound (so to speak), if one really would be stronger. A greyhound might be the fastest dog out there, but I'd be willing to bet that it couldn't pull 3,000 lbs in a pulling contest like a pit bull...

 

[Mr31415]

Just keep in mind that the heavier you weigh, the more energy you need to accelerate yourself at a given rate.

p = mv

Where p = momentum, m = mass and v = velocity.

Since the mantis is heavier, it would be interesting to find out whether its momentum is still higher? I.e. is it so much heavier than the ant is faster?

 

[THEMANTISMAN]

Mr I would think that the mantis would be lighter because the p=mv would only apply to the raptile appendages and not the whole animal. With consideration to boyancy the mantis's appendage may be lighter because it is not in water. Either way, both are cool animals but magnifying glasses on hot days are not natural predators of mantids lol

 

[THEMANTISMAN]

edit: the mantis's appendage may be lighter because it is in water

 

[sgolden]

i would just throw the ant in the mantis tank....