All of those fascinating descriptions of the effects of scale still leave me wondering: How does Pheidole adrianoi manage to run so fast, both in terms of body lengths and actual speed? It seems like it would be the opposite...
In Rüdiger Wehner's marvelous Desert Navigator book, he describres Cataglyphus bombycina's amazing running speed- 110 body lengths per second, equivalent to a human running at 160 mph. A useful adaptation for shortening exposure time in very hot environments...
Yes, a marvelous ant, and some marvelous research. I've seen other species (maybe the same genus) with similar habits and speed in the Namib Desert. These are larger than Pheidole adrianoi, but since they run faster, they probably feel the resistance of air too. They also have long legs to lift them out of the very hot boundary layer.
If I understand drafting, it takes advantage of the turbulent wake of a moving object. But very small objects do not create turbulence--- their movement is streamlined (laminar).
All of those fascinating descriptions of the effects of scale still leave me wondering: How does Pheidole adrianoi manage to run so fast, both in terms of body lengths and actual speed? It seems like it would be the opposite...
In Rüdiger Wehner's marvelous Desert Navigator book, he describres Cataglyphus bombycina's amazing running speed- 110 body lengths per second, equivalent to a human running at 160 mph. A useful adaptation for shortening exposure time in very hot environments...
Yes, a marvelous ant, and some marvelous research. I've seen other species (maybe the same genus) with similar habits and speed in the Namib Desert. These are larger than Pheidole adrianoi, but since they run faster, they probably feel the resistance of air too. They also have long legs to lift them out of the very hot boundary layer.
Awesome. It does make me wonder whether ants draft…clearly this would benefit the smaller ones more.
If I understand drafting, it takes advantage of the turbulent wake of a moving object. But very small objects do not create turbulence--- their movement is streamlined (laminar).
As usual, so well explained. Good work.