Sie alle nutzen ihre vorderen Extremitäten, um damit Objekte festzuhalten oder sonstwie zu manipulieren. Dass tatsächlich auch Ameisen in diesen Club gehören, wurde jetzt von Cassill et al. gezeigt.[Bild-Quelle: Naturwissenschaften; bearbeitet. Ich denke mal, die Beschriftung in dem eingerückten Bild soll "Queen" heißen, nicht "Queer" - obwohl ich das auch lustig fände.]
Ants inhabit diverse terrestrial biomes from the Sahara Desert to the Arctic tundra. One factor contributing to the ants’ successful colonization of diverse geographical regions is their ability to manipulate objects when excavating nests, capturing, transporting and rendering prey or grooming, feeding and transporting helpless brood. This paper is the first to report the form and function of opposable spines on the foretarsi of queens and workers used during fine motor and gross motor object manipulation in the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta. In conjunction with their mandibles, queens and workers used their foretarsi to grasp and rotate eggs, push or pull thread-like objects out of their way or push excavated soil pellets behind them for disposal by other workers. Opposable spines were found on the foretarsi of workers from seven of eight other ant species suggesting that they might be a common feature in the Formicidae.MfG,
JLT
Cassill et al., Opposable spines facilitate fine and gross object manipulation in fire ants. Naturwissenschaften 94, 326–332 (2007)
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