Dracula with a quick bite: scientists have found the owner of the fastest jaws

The owners of the fastest jaws were dracula ants. At that moment, as the insect tries to grab food, its stings can accelerate to a speed of 320 km / h.

It turns out that the most powerful, vigilant, fastest on Earth, taking into account the difference in size, are not mammals or other vertebrate creatures, but insects and other invertebrates.

For example, a fly-ktyr just in a split second aims at the victim and catches it. Even from an impressive distance for her. And sea mantis shrimps can hit their prey with shells with such force of blow, with which a bullet fired from a small-caliber rifle hits the target.

Grasshoppers and cicadas can bounce to a height exceeding their length by 100 times. And the side-walker spiders make eight sheepskin coats and at the same time precisely hit their victim.

This record holder complements yet another invertebrate - dracula ants, or Mystrium camillae. For these inhabitants of the tropical forests of Australia and Indonesia, mandibles work quite unusual.

“Most likely, these ants use the“ superpower ”of their stings to stun other insects or push them away from the entrance to the anthill. They then transport the helpless victim to the center of the nest, where their larvae devour it, ”said Andrew Suarez of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in New York, USA.

Having examined several individuals with the help of an X-ray and a high-speed camera capable of receiving over 480,000 frames per second, the scientists came to the conclusion: “Dracula” are champions in bite speed. Their jaws accelerate to 320 km / h in 0.000015 s. And the force of the impact stings is such that contact overturns and stuns larger insects.

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