1000fps video reveals the underlying action of a stinging ant's venom injection for the very first time

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/08/16/ant-rodeo.html

4 Likes

That guy is right out of central casting for an entomologist.

11 Likes

This is fascinating knowledge that I would never have cared to discover, but I’m glad someone else is that into it. For science!

10 Likes

It’s stuff like this that leads to advancement. Maybe this tube + pump mechanism will yeild better drug delivery systems, or make nanofiber manufacture more cost effective…

The most important scientific phrase ever uttered is not “Eureka!” It’s “Huh… That’s weird…”

25 Likes

Very cool: that’s PhD thesis material.

9 Likes

NC Museum of Natural Sciences! BugFest 2019 is right around the corner!

And it’s sponsored by Terminix? :thinking:

When I was 8, this is the kind of thing I wanted to be when I grew up. Not simply an entomologist. But a myrmecologist. Because ants are cool!

5 Likes

North Carolina is weird.

Autodidact FTW!

1 Like

I liked the ant rodeo scene. 8/10 would watch again

5 Likes

Because the stinger is only going through wax paper, there’s no backpressure on the venom. I wonder if he thought about filling in the backside of the surface with something like ballistics gel and trying to film through that.

More closely mimicing actual flesh would probably be more difficult, but if a mosquito can find blood vessels (a quick Google search seems to indicate so- they seem to use an actual person in the video screenshots I saw), might other venomous bugs (insects, arachnids, etc.) also do the same thing to maximize their sting or bite?

3 Likes

I found this flying ant crawling on me and since I had just read this post and was at the microscope, I decided to have a look at the stinger. First time I’ve been disappointed that the ant on my arm was stingless

5 Likes

13 posts and no thread theme yet?
I am disappoint.

3 Likes

Nerd on, dude, nerd on!!

Also, “Mant”!!

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.