It was revealed in a recent study that trap jaw ants use their jaws in order to escape death traps. These ants are equipped with herculean and spring loaded mandibles, which makes it very easy for them to crush the prey and defend the nests.

In a study that was published in "Plos One," Andrew Suarez and Fredrick Larbee provided solid evidence that these ants use the mandibles for extremely high velocity jaw propulsion, according to One News Page. But apart from this, these powerful jaws are used for various other purposes as well.

Like Us on Facebook

According to the above mentioned entomologists, when these ants produce force from the jaws and strike something, a high amount of energy is released which enable the ants to go flying in the air. It can open the jaws till 180 degrees without snapping them shut; and the speed of shutting these jaws is as high as 140 miles per hour, according to Digital Journal. They can jump backwards and forwards depending on the location of the threat.

The jaws work like trigger for these ants, getting latched and unlatched as the ants will them to be. The scientists were not able to decide whether these ants possessed this natural instinct to fly or were engaging into it unintentionally. But after this extensive study, they know for sure that the trap jaw ants are very much skilled at acrobatics, in order to hurl towards safety.

Also, the scientists noticed that before launching itself with the help of jaw propulsion, these ants get into a particular position, where it lowers itself, touching the ground, and raises one leg before launching the mandibles and go flying in the air.

This study proved to be very helpful in determining the capability of these ants and study the ants' evolution over the time.

TagsTrap Jaw Ants, Trap Jaw Ants jaws, Trap Jaw Ants use jaws to escape traps, Trap Jaw Ants use jaws to escape death, Trap Jaw Ants video, video Trap Jaw Ants