How fast can ants run

They're covered in unique hairs with a triangular cross-section that keep their bodies cool by reflecting the Sun's radiation, and offloading excess thermal radiation.

And they move extremely fast, so they can be in and out of the heat as quickly as possible. They spend just a few minutes outside the nest scavenging the carcasses of fallen desert creatures before zooming back in again. To find out not just exactly how fast, but how the ants get to such speeds, biologists from the University of Ulm in Germany decided to film them in high speed.

First, they had to locate a nest - no easy task, since the ants spend such little time outside. But then, when that was accomplished, the next part was much simpler. They attached an aluminium channel to the entrance, with a feeder at the end to lure them out of the nest. In addition, the team carefully excavated a nest and brought it back to Germany, to see how the ants moved in cooler temperatures.

In the intense heat of the desert, the ants are at maximum efficiency. The top speed recorded was millimetres per second. Back in the lab in Germany, at temperatures of just 10 degrees Celsius, they were much slower - just 57 millimetres 2. Environment Planet Possible India bets its energy future on solar—in ways both small and big Grassroots efforts are bringing solar panels to rural villages without electricity, while massive solar arrays are being built across the country.

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In a furious burst of activity that may be as short as 10 minutes , they scavenge for insects and other small animals that have fallen victim to the heat. It has been clear since the s that they run very fast, says Sarah Pfeffer at Ulm University in Germany. Pfeffer and her colleagues have now measured how fast Saharan silver ants run using high-speed video.