Cargando…
Dynamics of locomotion in the seed harvesting ant Messor barbarus: effect of individual body mass and transported load mass
Ants are well-known for their amazing load carriage performances. Yet, the biomechanics of locomotion during load transport in these insects has so far been poorly investigated. Here, we present a study of the biomechanics of unloaded and loaded locomotion in the polymorphic seed-harvesting ant Mess...
Autores principales: | , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
PeerJ Inc.
2021
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7849507/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33575127 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10664 |
_version_ | 1783645317234688000 |
---|---|
author | Merienne, Hugo Latil, Gérard Moretto, Pierre Fourcassié, Vincent |
author_facet | Merienne, Hugo Latil, Gérard Moretto, Pierre Fourcassié, Vincent |
author_sort | Merienne, Hugo |
collection | PubMed |
description | Ants are well-known for their amazing load carriage performances. Yet, the biomechanics of locomotion during load transport in these insects has so far been poorly investigated. Here, we present a study of the biomechanics of unloaded and loaded locomotion in the polymorphic seed-harvesting ant Messor barbarus (Linnaeus, 1767). This species is characterized by a strong intra-colonial size polymorphism with allometric relationships between the different body parts of the workers. In particular, big ants have much larger heads relative to their size than small ants. Their center of mass is thus shifted forward and even more so when they are carrying a load in their mandibles. We investigated the dynamics of the ant center of mass during unloaded and loaded locomotion. We found that during both unloaded and loaded locomotion, the kinetic energy and gravitational potential energy of the ant center of mass are in phase, which is in agreement with what has been described by other authors as a grounded-running gait. During unloaded locomotion, small and big ants do not display the same posture. However, they expend the same amount of mechanical energy to raise and accelerate their center of mass per unit of distance and per unit of body mass. While carrying a load, compared to the unloaded situation, ants seem to modify their locomotion gradually with increasing load mass. Therefore, loaded and unloaded locomotion do not involve discrete types of gait. Moreover, small ants carrying small loads expend less mechanical energy per unit of distance and per unit of body mass and their locomotion thus seem more mechanically efficient. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7849507 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-78495072021-02-10 Dynamics of locomotion in the seed harvesting ant Messor barbarus: effect of individual body mass and transported load mass Merienne, Hugo Latil, Gérard Moretto, Pierre Fourcassié, Vincent PeerJ Animal Behavior Ants are well-known for their amazing load carriage performances. Yet, the biomechanics of locomotion during load transport in these insects has so far been poorly investigated. Here, we present a study of the biomechanics of unloaded and loaded locomotion in the polymorphic seed-harvesting ant Messor barbarus (Linnaeus, 1767). This species is characterized by a strong intra-colonial size polymorphism with allometric relationships between the different body parts of the workers. In particular, big ants have much larger heads relative to their size than small ants. Their center of mass is thus shifted forward and even more so when they are carrying a load in their mandibles. We investigated the dynamics of the ant center of mass during unloaded and loaded locomotion. We found that during both unloaded and loaded locomotion, the kinetic energy and gravitational potential energy of the ant center of mass are in phase, which is in agreement with what has been described by other authors as a grounded-running gait. During unloaded locomotion, small and big ants do not display the same posture. However, they expend the same amount of mechanical energy to raise and accelerate their center of mass per unit of distance and per unit of body mass. While carrying a load, compared to the unloaded situation, ants seem to modify their locomotion gradually with increasing load mass. Therefore, loaded and unloaded locomotion do not involve discrete types of gait. Moreover, small ants carrying small loads expend less mechanical energy per unit of distance and per unit of body mass and their locomotion thus seem more mechanically efficient. PeerJ Inc. 2021-01-29 /pmc/articles/PMC7849507/ /pubmed/33575127 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10664 Text en ©2021 Merienne et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited. |
spellingShingle | Animal Behavior Merienne, Hugo Latil, Gérard Moretto, Pierre Fourcassié, Vincent Dynamics of locomotion in the seed harvesting ant Messor barbarus: effect of individual body mass and transported load mass |
title | Dynamics of locomotion in the seed harvesting ant Messor barbarus: effect of individual body mass and transported load mass |
title_full | Dynamics of locomotion in the seed harvesting ant Messor barbarus: effect of individual body mass and transported load mass |
title_fullStr | Dynamics of locomotion in the seed harvesting ant Messor barbarus: effect of individual body mass and transported load mass |
title_full_unstemmed | Dynamics of locomotion in the seed harvesting ant Messor barbarus: effect of individual body mass and transported load mass |
title_short | Dynamics of locomotion in the seed harvesting ant Messor barbarus: effect of individual body mass and transported load mass |
title_sort | dynamics of locomotion in the seed harvesting ant messor barbarus: effect of individual body mass and transported load mass |
topic | Animal Behavior |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7849507/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33575127 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10664 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT meriennehugo dynamicsoflocomotionintheseedharvestingantmessorbarbaruseffectofindividualbodymassandtransportedloadmass AT latilgerard dynamicsoflocomotionintheseedharvestingantmessorbarbaruseffectofindividualbodymassandtransportedloadmass AT morettopierre dynamicsoflocomotionintheseedharvestingantmessorbarbaruseffectofindividualbodymassandtransportedloadmass AT fourcassievincent dynamicsoflocomotionintheseedharvestingantmessorbarbaruseffectofindividualbodymassandtransportedloadmass |