Published 15:12 IST, July 31st 2019
Watch what happens below the skin after an ant's sting
In a mind-boggling video, a research biologist has captured what happens below the skin after an ant stings it. The three-minute-long video giving a detailed account of the biological process surfaced over the Internet on July 29 and left netizens absolutely awe-struck.
In a mind-boggling video, a research biologist has captured what happens below the skin after an ant stings it. The three-minute-long video giving a detailed account of the biological process surfaced over the Internet on July 29 and left netizens absolutely awe-struck.
The video, a brainchild of the head of the Evolutionary Biology & Behavior Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Adrian Smith, sees him explaining the whole procedure, from the venom being pumped out of the ant's stinger to being injected into the skin.
In a bid to share his scientific discovery with the netizens all around, the Biologist took to Twitter to share a series of videos describing the chemical process,
It’s a crazy thing to try to film. Even big stingers, like the harvester ant one below, are thinner than a hair on your head. About 40microns wide. And the venom pumping action is faster than a blink of an eye. pic.twitter.com/TThanw3BeI
— Adrian Smith (@DrAdrianSmith) July 29, 2019
To capture venom delivery, I filmed them at 1,000fps jabbing their stinger through a thin wax film. Most attempts were total failures. This is 1 of about 6 shots that worked out. I probably spent ~30hrs trying to capture footage like this. pic.twitter.com/sjhIdMBEr4
— Adrian Smith (@DrAdrianSmith) July 29, 2019
As a concluding statement, the biologist is found saying that in one second an ant is capable of injecting almost 13 venomous droplets or more depending upon the back and forth movements of the lancets and its speed. Thus if an ant wants any successful chance of delivering venom, the cue to that is speed and nothing else.
Updated 18:31 IST, July 31st 2019