EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF A KIND OF ANTS' ADHESIVE SYSTEM

With the help of scanning electronic microscope and optical microscope, themicro-adhesive systems of house ants are observed and studiedexperimentally, especially for the adhesive mechanisms on clean glass sheetsand the climbing behaviors on glass sheets or wax surfaces with differentsurface roughness or tilted angles. Experimental observations show that theadhesion of ants depends largely on an arolium, which can extend freely. Thesurface roughness and tilted angles of glass sheets have no obvious effectson ants' climbing behaviors. However, ants' adhesion ability decreases whenthe tilted angle of wax surface increases, and becomes invalid beyond a criticaltilted angle.