The Art of a Clean Ant

Insect’s ecosystems may lead us to believe they are constantly covered in filth, however this is not the case. Walter Federle, hisadvisors and other colleagues from Cambridge along with the medical school of University of Warwick are well aware of the importance of cleanliness of ant’s antennas for survival to find scents, navigate, and communicate. To survey how ants stay clean they took video recordings ad used electron microscopes for looking at the cleaning ability of carpenter ants located on a joint in their front legs.

The ant is able to remove dirt particles by bending its leg to form a clamp for the antenna to come through and push off pollen and dirt. The antenna does so with its bristles that can remove the larger dirt pieces, and than a comb comes through and finally a brush to get rid of any debris left. There is one more process the ant goes through to reach total cleanliness, which is cleaning the antenna with its own mouth. This overall process has been perfected to the point that the comb and brush do not damage the valuable antenna by accommodating for the right amount of pressure and size.

The ant’s ability to clean itself is astonishing for such a small creature that is constantly living in an environment filled with dirt. This shows that that an ant understands how important its antennas are for survival and has evolved to be able to keep them in the best shape possible.