How much can an ant lift - what is the strength, brother
When it comes to incredible physical strength, superheroes from films or heroes from children's fairy tales most often come to mind. All of these characters are fictional and have nothing to do with the real world. But, on planet Earth, there are still living creatures that can boast of a “heroic silushka” and one of those are ordinary ants.
How much can an ant weigh
Ants are one of the lightest insects. Depending on the species, the weight of an ordinary worker ant can range from 1 to 90 mg.
It is worth noting that in ant colonies there is a strict distribution of roles and responsibilities. Each anthill has its own uterus, soldiers and workers, while all of them are very different from each other in appearance.
The largest member of the ant family is the uterus. In some species, the queen can weigh 200-700 times more than the working individual, and its body length can reach 9-10 cm.
How much weight can ants lift
People who have watched ants at least once could notice how they carry straws or leaves many times their size.
It's incredible, but one average ant is able to lift a load, the mass of which exceeds its own weight by 30-50 times.
Thanks to simple calculations, it turned out that an ant in comparison with a healthy adult, stronger than him about 25 times. If people had the same abilities as ants, then the average person could independently move a load weighing 5 tons.
Such incredible strength of ants is amazing, but do not forget that their weight is very small and the maximum carrying capacity of one small ant is only 0,25 g. For clarity, below is the weight of some items and the number of ants needed to transport them.
| Playing card | 0,79 g | 5 ants |
| silkworm caterpillar | 5 g | 28 ants |
| Plastic water bottle | 500 g | 2778 ants |
| Brick | 3000 g | 16667 ants |
Why are ants so strong
The strength of an ant is in its size.
It would seem that the strongest on the planet should be the largest animal in size, but in nature everything is much more complicated. The amount of muscle tissue and the size of the organism itself are inversely proportional, so the miniaturization of ants in this situation works in their favor.
Another advantage of these insects is the body itself, which is an exoskeleton. At the same time, the muscles of ants are arranged in a completely different way and are about 100 times stronger than human ones.
In addition to representatives of the ant family, many other insects, for example, beetles, can boast of the same strength. In the process of research, it was proved that the most powerful insect on the planet is the Kaloed bull. This beetle is able to hold on itself a load, the mass of which is 1141 times its own weight.
Conclusion
Despite the level of development of the modern world, humanity still has a huge number of unsolved mysteries of nature. Many of them have already been discovered thanks to the many years of work of scientists from all over the world, but this is only a small part of them.
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