10 February 2005
Forest ants: take the flight back
Many tree-dwelling animals use gliding flight to get from tree to tree, for example flying squirrels, gliders and lemurs. Now similar behaviour has been observed in a wingless insect — the ants of tropical rainforest canopies. Simple experiments and videos show that after jumping or falling off a branch the ants avoid landing on the vegetation or the ground beneath by visually aligning themselves with the 'home' tree and gliding backwards to the trunk.
Directed aerial descent in canopy ants
STEPHEN. P. YANOVIAK, ROBERT DUDLEY & MICHAEL KASPARI
Nature 433, 624–626 (2005); doi:10.1038/nature03254
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